Good piece Jay, but don't expect the politicos to admit to anything. They have already moved on to the next issue they can exploit. Don't worry though, it will come up again next time oil prices spike.

On the contrary, this precisely shows that the price of oil has nothing to do with the cost of production which certainly didn't double or triple then halve in the past months, giving the oil companies record quarterly profits for a few quarters but thereby contributing significantly to the world economic meltdown. They charged `what the market would bear', and obviously more than it would bear, resulting in a bear market! Not that it was unique to the oil companies, though, as there was also greed in the financial and housing industries that led to players pursuing short term gains instead of long ones. Take the money and run is not how investment is supposed to work. The Wall St. Journal has an interesting table online from a study on the hundreds of billions many of these executives took from their companies as their value lost 70-100 percent of their value. So they do owe us an apology, not the other way around.

Demand is down because the people have no more money to spend.

The big show in China is over and the building and demand spike is down.
30% of the cost of gas is gone because the speculatiors backed off due to the threat of a congressional investigation.

How many gas guzzlers were shipped to Mexico where most old clunkers operate on cheaper fuel.

Without jobs people don't buy many products, including $2 gas.

Sure my analysis was a bit simplified but the miracle of the supply and demand curve to explain away declineing gas prices is just as simple.

BTW OPEC increased demand shortly before the beginning of the decline of prices.

Someone needs to get back to the drawing board and rethink all the variables in the model ........heck noone covered high wages for refinery workers......lets lump them in with the Auto workers and solve the blame game for two industries.

If you had looked at the amounts of new money entering the commodities future markets it was obvious that speculation had entered the market.

It should have been apparent that increasing US oil production from 3% to 3.5% would have little measurable effect on market prices.

Jay would have us give thanks to the thugs who have the heel of their boot firmly planted on the back of our necks, in return for a momentary easing of the pressure.

Never mind that it was the American Oil Interests who put us into a phony war in order to control the oil production of un uncooperative competitor.

Never mind that thousands of American died in that war. And the impact of that war will live on for generations in broken and crippled American families.

Never mind that tens of thousands of Iraqi people died in that war and had their nation thrown into political upheaval.

Never mind that the good will that America previously enjoyed in the world was dragged down and lost in the mud of hate and fear.

Never mind that the high price of oil was probably the leading cause of our current financial troubles.

And never mind that the BIG OIL Corporations can do it all over again whenever they wish.

bitter and cynical to be taken seriously on this issue.

Ultra Bob may be bitter and cynical......but being bitter is the norm for many Americans as their nest egg flew the coup to either the oil speculatore the housing leaches or the money mismanagers.

Cynical kinda makes sense too. Lets all take our oil bonus and build an off the grid mansion so that we are ready for the next oil spike.

We can blame Vietnam for the next big demand spike as they build factories to build us cheap cars or prefab grass shacks so that we can join the rest of the world in a blooming third word economy.

"Never mind that it was the American Oil Interests who put us into a phony war in order to control the oil production of an uncooperative competitor."
Hush now Ultra Bob, don't you know you are not supposed to say that? You are not holding the party line. People will think you are bitter.
Now com'on, everyone knows the Oil Company's have no power. Everyone knows they don't price fix. Everyone knows they are looking out for our best interests.
Com'on, CEO's are kindly jolly folk that only want what is best for you and me and America. Greed is cool, power doesn't corrupt. Power makes these kindly CEO's want to give of themselves. They are the best of the best. They are like Kind, Gentle, Wise, Fathers.

How dumb do you think we really are?

Did oil production all of a sudden double these past few months? Did the demand decrease by 50%?

C'mon, how dumb do you think we are? Obviously oil companies gouged us as much as they could during the peak season. Now, they'll do as the always do, lower prices for a time. We'll all settle down, fall back into our normal wasting ways, forget about going green, and stop pressuring our government for real change.

Then the whole thing will start up again, we'll be all upset, talk big about getting off our "oil addiction" and then the price will fall back again. Never to where it originally was... But it'll fall down.

I'll give Big Oil an apology once they start treating their customers with honesty and integrity. Until then, they deserve every negative complaint they receive.

There is an element of truth to this story, however there is also some whitewashing of some facts. Speculation did in fact contribute to the oil price rise, the price of oil is determined by the price of the futures contracts.

I didn't like the political grandstanding over the summer however I will NEVER feel any tinge of sympathy for oil companies.

Yes we do need oil, no we do not NEED these companies to provide it for us. Its time for something so necessary to everyones livelihood to be treated the way we treat water. We would never let anyone privatize the profits off of water, it is a public utility. Its time we treat energy the same way.