Judah wrote:


The price of oil right now is driven totally by near-monopolistic supply
and demand curves. They raise the prices during holidays and higher usage
periods (like the first cold week of winter) to reap the most significant
profits, and then back off just enough so that no one is really inspired to
really convert everything to used wok oil.

If Saddam were still in power in Iraq, he would be getting Halliburton's
cut of the action. That's about the only difference I see.

If anything, the war in Iraq was one of the catalysts for the oil companies
to start this cycle... Between vengefulness, and a real (although probably
artificially inflated) shortage caused by all of the oil fires, OPEC raised
the price. The reaction they saw was a big profit increase, and a small
grumbling, but no other significant consequences.

I wish I could do the same with my products...

Oil companies profit margins are about average compared with other
industries. As far as the price of oil... its not controlled by the
oil companies, it is set by the world-wide marketplace. The US could
be a bigger producer of oil but it chooses not to (for a number of
reasons) therefore it is much more at the mercy of Opec and the
geopolitical forces throughout the world.

If the US actually had a *real* energy policy to _include_ more
production, nuclear and alternatives then there would be immediate
downward pressure on worlwide prices. But we don't (that requires
actual intelligent leadership and the US has none) so we are in
the situation of paying out the nose with dollars that are worth less.