[brownsfan]

"(it's the old class warfare, corporations are evil, Marxist thinking)"

There is no question the left is crazy with hatred for all things related to oil. I believe that as you do.

However, there are other things to consider, besides supply and demand. If you allow economies to exist freely with no intervention, bad things can happen. Isn't that why we have anti-trust laws?

Then, there is the issue of oil's place in our economy. If I own an oil company, I'm going to make as much profit as I can, for as long as I can. If I have to stretch laws, or gouge, that's what I'm supposed to do. I understand that, and accept it's the nature of things. But, the price of oil affects the price of virtually everything. We could be looking at a serious inflationary cycle, and that means a serious hit to all of your stocks.

I'd kind of like to avoid that if possible.

[Hendrix]

I have no problem with intervention to stop any anti-trust violations or to stop companies from breaking any other laws, but what I am hearing people say is that the oil companies should be prevented from doing what is perfectly legal and what is perfectly part of our free market system. If supply goes down and demand stays constant, prices will generally go up, and we should not stop or prevent that from occurring, regardless of the consequences (those consequences are exactly what make an economic system work if you really understand economics). Raising prices because of less supply is how an economic system works.