Real World Value Of A Barrel Oil Is About $10 So Why Are We STILL Paying Over $70?

lol Comeon why complain how else would we see Gold Plated X5Ms, tacky bright yellow sls amgs, chrome painted Audis and Jags and Veyron on every corder in pics, the world paying for that stuff everyday just for tacky extravegance is totally worth it...

that is just easy math, the reason is becuase someone has to kill baby seals so they can buy there yacht. GREED

It's called a free market.

When the playing field is made up of entrenched and fortified players, you can hardly make a case that it is "free". OPEC leader Saudi Arabia holds hands, literally, with US Presidents. You could make a strong case that when a market is left to its own devices, the major participants use their wealth to subvert the market, and thus corrupting it so it is no longer free.

Imagine a football game with no referee and rules written by the winning team.

"Imagine a football game with no referee and rules written by the winning team."


Welcome to the modern free market.

A couple of posters have stated that this is the "FREE MARKET" at work.
Wrong.
The price of oil is controlled by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) which regulates price by increasing or reducing supply.
OPEC is an Oligopoly and is the antithesis of a competitve free market.

truly delusional

Easy. Its called laziness.

Well I think the article answered it nicely, the price of oil is based on people's value of it. People who are really good at twisting things will say that of course we haven't yet hit peak oil (read that as we are still producing more and more oil, but we haven't made as much as we can yet) and that once we have then the supply will no longer be able to keep up with the demand and prices will skyrocket. Unfortunately however along with this eco crap, lots of uninformed people keep pushing and telling people that we are almost out hence why the epa also displays how many barrels of oil a vehicle uses... this focus on trying to conserve oil sends a false image that we are running out... which in turn drives up the price of oil, and when people see the price of oil go up, they think that we are running out... it's a vicious cycle, and I wish I was in the loop at the receiving end of this vicious cycle...

But its a weird dichotomy....if the price of gas was really $20 a barrel we'd use more.......and the price would go back up.

you would drive more because you didn't have to pay as much? bullsh!t

He is basically saying that oil should be priced as a commodity rather than as an investment device. EXCEPT that all commodities are traded in this same way and they all carry some level of premium in their price based on current supply and future demand - even pork bellies.

So, sure the intrinsic price of oil is basically how much fuel one can get from a barrel, but that price structure hasn't been used since before the Romans.

What do you think gold would sell for - same assumptions?

Government control - yeah, that's the answer - the commies proved it!

there's never and easy answer in this situation. oil prices are seemingly "unrealistically" high...and there's an over-abundance of American oil in storage.

now ponder this: if oil prices were to be $15-$30/barrel, and the average consumer was allowed to continue to purchase gas at --- rock bottom prices --- $1.25/gallon....where would the levels of oil reserves be? the same? vastly lower? don't know.

we do know that the price of oil was vetted and hastily increased as the mortgage market saw adjustable rate mortgages reset to unexpected highs --- which helped to negatively affect the overall economy. Just think --- had the oil giants just lowered their prices, speculation would have went positive and prevented further losses in associated industries.

Hey, you have to pay more atention to Michael Moore.

We have "so much oil" right now cause congress and the president refuse to release oil from our strategic reserve...the amount will continue to grow. The price could be impacted by our releasing oil but that would never happen. another poster got it right as well...OPEC sets the price with back room approval of western countries....