Posted on 09/05/2006 12:21:04 PM PDT by freemarket_kenshepherd
Maybe it could be called “The Conspiracy Hour with Jack Cafferty.” On the September 2 “In the Money,” the program’s host recycled his theory that gas prices are dropping because of scheming oil companies.
“You know, if you were a real cynic, you could also wonder if the oil companies might not be pulling the price of gas down to help the Republicans get re-elected in the midterm elections a couple of months away,” Cafferty suggested just a few days earlier on the August 30 “Situation Room.”
“In the Money” contributor Jennifer Westhoven reminded Cafferty of his August 30 comments and suggested he rehash his “cynicism about the election” for the “In the Money” audience.
“Certainly the thought had crossed my mind. I mean, the oil companies have a vested interest in seeing that the Republicans remain in control of the federal government,” Cafferty answered Westhoven, before adding facetiously, “They wouldn't pull prices down before the mid-terms now, would they?” he added over laughter from his fellow panelists.
Later on, Cafferty returned to actual supply and demand considerations driving the price, which prompted contributor and Fortune magazine editor Andy Serwer to offer a gloomy prediction. Suggesting the price drop was only a “blip,” Serwer warned that political crises stemming from Iran, Venezuela, or Nigeria “could erupt or turn bad or anything at any point” or that the hurricane season might take a turn for the worse.
At no point in their look at gas prices did the “In the Money” crew seek the opinion of oil analysts, although Serwer confidently pointed to “the folks at the Chrysler Corporation” who “seem to be suggesting” gas prices will “stay up for a while.” Serwer also scoffed at others who “think they’re going back to $2,” adding, “I’m not one of them.”
While the “American Morning” business contributor didn’t name names on the $2 prediction, he appears to be misquoting oil experts.
“We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving,” reporter James Healey quoted the Oil Price Information Service’s (OPIS) Fred Rozell in the August 30 paper. That would suggest gas price averaging below $2.50, not necessarily at or near the $2-a-gallon mark.
A September 5 article by Associated Press reporter Brad Foss similarly noted that “most analysts” believe achieving $2-a-gallon prices “is unlikely and would entail a major slowdown in the economy, if not a downright recession” but that it’s more likely “that retail gasoline prices will slide to about $2.50 a gallon by winter – and then head higher again early next year.” The average per gallon price for gasoline has dropped 30 cents in the past month, to $2.73.
The Business & Media Institute has varying coverage of price drops by other media outlets. On the August 31 “Early Show,” CBS’s Harry Smith remarked that the media months ago were “screaming with our hair on fire” about then-rising gas prices while a day earlier, NBC’s Kevin Tibbles shrugged off the downward trend, focusing his August 30 report on Chrysler’s “wake-up” call from CEO Tom LaSorda who is planning for gas prices in the “$3-to$4-a-gallon” range.
Karl Rove takes time out from his busy schedule manipulating his hurricane machine to pull the "lower fuel prices" lever on his petrochemical control machine.
Cafferty is too senile to remember the gas price slide October-November last year, just before the elections-- well NJ and VA governors.
Oil prices never fall as rapidly as they went down. So when the price falls below $33 per barrel, then it's time to celebrate and not before.
That is: Oil prices never fall as rapidly as they went up.
I remember back in 38 when Karl Rove successfully reverse engineered the summer vacation hike/back to school lessening of demand.
First Bush didn't care about the 'little guy', so he let prices rise. Now that prices are falling it's a Bush conspiracy. LMAO, the left makes a better comedy team than Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, Hope and Crosby and a pastle of others all rolled into one.
Heh heh heh...
(evil sneer)
It's funny how $2.50 a gallon is now considered cheap...We have been assimilated.
Hope the conspiracy can lower the cost of gas another50 cents.
I hear that one of the big oil companies just announced that they had found a HUGE oil reserve somewhere in the Gulf that is going to be as big as anything in Alaska.
They probably did that to piss off the Dems too.
the wild price swings come from the hedge funds and the speculators.
$2.65 here in PA.
I actually was surprised to see $2.39 this morning on I-40.
I remember paying $2.79 a gallon a year and half ago. Then it went up over three dollars and even hit $3.69 here in New York. It stayed up over three bucks for a long time, but has plunged in the last two weeks. This morning I paid $2.59 ($2.89 for premium) on Long Island with most stations priced at around $2.79. It's not scientific, but it seems to me that the prices came down a lot faster than it took for them to rise.
Any opinions from people who know more than I?
CNN is nothing but the voice of the DNC. Don't watch them.
Here are the charts that tell the story. The facts speak for themselves....
http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24
Yep.
This is Bush's fault.
Infact, I'll let the Dems in on a secret.
This year's "October Surprise" the GOP, orchestrated by Rove of course, is going to unveil it's secret weapon to re-election. If they get 300 House seats and 65 Senate seat the American people will be guarenteed 10 cent gas so long as they retain the new majority.
Don't say you weren't warned Dems...
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