I am in insulation/fireplaces/gutters primarily. I don't know what lumber has done, but steel, insulation, sheet rock and roofing have spiraled upward at a record pace. In fact, metal prices in general have skyrocketed, including the price for scrap.

If the repubicans win, prices will go back up. If Democrats win, big oil might be concerned about reprocussions if they continue raping Americans. And if Democrats win, they had better fucking do something about the situation. maybe repeal the energy act of the Cheney administration.

I should imagine pretty much everything will continue to skyrocket (in price) until you find a way of manufacturing it without oil. It's a finite resource and in one hundred years we've managed to burn half of what took several million years to create.

Getting pissed over domestic petroleum prices is just the tip of the iceberg.

"Big oil" doesn't care either way. People buy gas, they make money. No matter what.

If your tidy, left wing conspiracy is is true, could you please explain to me when the Middle East producers stopped being the ones to set the price per barrel?

They haven't, but the producers don't set the price at the pump and the two are not directly related. Most prices at the pump are set as a result of fluctuations in the oil futures market as well as the ability of the Big Oil companies to refine crude into it's constituent parts for us to use. So, since the futures market has been trending downwards, and the backlog at refineries is decreasing, we have lower at-the-pump prices.
It isn't a conspiracy, it's the Big Oil companies trying to make as much money as they can, which is the purpose of any company. Whether it's ethical or not is another matter.

I seem to recall that 30 years ago there was massive fuel price fluctuation and all the oil people got rich

and there was great gnashing of teeth and calling for special taxes on the bad rich people

and then 15 years ago there was no fluctuation and status quo and the oil people were all going bust

and nobody called for any special taxes on them because all of Texas was in recession

and now there is fluctuation and all the oil people are making money again.

I do not advise moving to Texas.

It's also interesting to note that a large portion of the "oil people" here in Texas is the state University system. Lower oil profits means less money for public higher education. The anti-corporation folks really squirm when you bring that up. :)

I have a short memory, I guess. I don't recall a lot of struggling oil companies due to the cheap price of energy.

Does anyone here believe there is any such thing as an obscene amount of profits?

As a libertarian, Patrick, no I don't. Also as a libertarian, if I don't like their prices, I vote with my wallet for something else. Hell, I've got a bicycle. The Oxnard metro area is flat terrain.

In theory, yes. There can be.

I don't have a problem with luxury items having huge profit margins. But necessities shouldn't have obscene profit margins. If a monopoly exists that allows huge profits on necessities, then the government should break up that monopoly.

The way they avoided struggling too much was by laying people off. I remember several schoolmates' parents basically going broke for a couple of years or having to give up and switch careers because of it. None of them were executives, though.

They've made record profits lately. Something tells me it was largely due to the exhorbitant prices at the pumps.
Labor Day, the end of the vacation travel season.:mad:

Another reason for the huge profit numbers is the size of the companies. All the mergers have lessened the competition and with fewer companies come bigger market shares. :(

But that's good, right?

Didn't our government go to some rather extraordinary lengths to break up giant monopolies about twenty years ago? What the fuck has changed that it is now a good thing?

Bush. :eyebrow: