The Saudis are not pumping more oil because they can't. That is the dirty secret that no one wants to reveal. They are very close to max capacity. New discoveries in Brazil, etc. are not going to come online fast enough to make any difference in the short term.
The only way we can make a dent in the price of oil right now is to use less- a lot less. Americans could totally change the market by driving less. Will we? I doubt it, not in the short term. In the longer term, we'll buy smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and make different choices about where we live and work, but for now, we're stuck. As for Iran, they have chosen a path that will inevitably lead to conflict of one sort or another. That is the Iranian government's fault. The U.S. has gone out of the way to push for diplomacy, but if diplomacy fails, there is going to be a conflict. The Israelis are never going to stand by and watch the Iranians develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles to fire those weapons at Israel. A nuclear attack from Iran is an existential threat to Israel's existence. Maybe Ahmedinejad is using that fear to push up the price of oil, but that is hardly Bush's fault. On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 5:12 PM, Gruss wrote: > > So demand has increased and Bush made a personal trip to the Saudis to > call in his favors. They publicly kicked him in the nuts and sent him > away empty handed. So much for the Bush policy of offsetting supply. > > > As for speculators, again, you accurately point out that they work on > supply and demand. But again, you only choose to tell half the story. > When speculators think that world oil supply will be constrained by, > say, a military strike on Iran, they drive up futures. > > Gee, now who's rattling sabers about an attack on Iran? Hmmm .... > Bush? Ah, right, that's the guy. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:263434 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
