Posted on 09/12/2008 1:41:12 PM PDT by Old Sarge
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Kentucky's governor has signed an order declaring a state of emergency and invoking the state's anti-price gouging law as Hurricane Ike bears down on the Texas coast.
Gov. Steve Beshear signed the order on Friday, saying gas stations started raising fuel prices overnight before the storm made landfall.
Beshear signed the order at the request of Attorney General Jack Conway, who said in a letter released Friday that invoking the law now will help prevent predatory pricing.
(Excerpt) Read more at whas11.com ...
Oil sinks to a six month low but gas rices. Most people won’t understand why.
Prices may take weeks to rebound b/c Houston is going to get a lot of water!
Price gauging hit around here about two days ago ... price at the pumps in East Tennessee went up $.50 per gallon overnight ... and we’re not in the hurricane path. The retailers don’t wait for the suppliers in LA to run low and increase prices, they just escalate as soon as they see even a slime reason to jack the price. I’ll stay home and eat cat food before I’ll buy their damn inflated fuel. A week from now, when the supply has not been disrupted significantly, the prices will slowly come back to the $3.49 per gallon where they were. But the reduction will be painfully slow. SAM’S club is the only one which makes immediate changes to pre-panic pricing. And the SAM’S Club here is still at the rational price so they are about to be bought out by the end of this afternoon!
I speak carelessly, of course. What I probably should have said was that when supply goes down people have to buy less, otherwise the amrket does not clear properly. But I think we can both agree, the point of raising prices is to lower demand, and that lowering demand is a good thing when there isn’t enough gas to go around.
Yeah, that came across pretty crappy, didn't it.
I would not like to be in TX right now with Hurricane Ike bearing down on me with an empty tank of gas. Although I would be willing to pay anything for a gallon of gasoline, I am told that there is none available. When I ask why, I am told that the price was artifically lowered in KY. All the folks continued their current driving patterns, and as a result there was no gas available in KY to send to TX.
A bit of an overstatement, to be sure, but that is how markets work and how successful businessmen make money. They get the product to those markets that are willing to pay the most for them.
Good personal testimony, MHG.
You underscore the difference between an American conservative and a religiously devoted libertarian.
I just called my favorite gas jockey here in PA. He says the price is now $3.39 and going up by $1 tonight.
I could run my truck on the emmissions from all the verbal flatulence of the Left htese days!
Are you trying to tell me that price has no effect on demand? Are you crazy?
“If you need to get down the road, to get to work, you pay anyway.”
And the only reason people ever use gas is to get to work and back, right?
“If you have a heart attack, you go to the hospital, anyway”
The only reason anyone ever goes to the hospital is after they have major complcations, right? Speaking as someone who has worked in an Emergency Room, trust me, people who don’t have to pay for their visits are pretty loose about what constitutes an emergency.
“Government is there to keep powerful interests from being tyrannical. “
Then you say:
“Price gouging profiteering in vital commodities (and the inherent trust that brings it, even if unstated) is tyrannical.”
Where on earth do you get that definition of government or that idea on “price gouging”? How can you have tyrannical control of commodities, unless you are a government?
Your words make no sense. Are you sure you're not on the wrong web forum?
It would be better in the interest of morality (and customer satisfaction) to raise prices just a smidge (and give a big suggestion to customers by selling a maximum of 5 gallons at a time, if there is a run).
$4.45 outside of Lawrenceville!
“You underscore the difference between an American conservative and a religiously devoted libertarian.”
Oh, I see, American conservatives can live with innefficiency, because high prices are just too offensive. Zealous libertarians, on the other hand, would let your mother starve if it meant ten other people would eat. How heartless.
I suggest you look up the words, "monopolistic practices" and do some reading, then, thanks for the heads up.
I'm a conservative. You appear to want to post on a Web site favorig libertarian religio-philosophy.
It has gone from $3.45 to $3.69 in Northeast Texas.
“It would be better in the interest of morality (and customer satisfaction) to raise prices just a smidge”
Sellers are trying to anticipate the market, not appease people’s sensitivity. Also, customer satisfaction might be offended when people get to the pump and find nothing there.
There is a difference between what one may choose to do and what one should be required to do.
Your thinking would have some liberals, once in total power, mandating abortions on your children without your control.
Government isn’t the place to fight this battle.
Yes. And, no, the politicians will never learn.
That is the fallacy of taking positions to ludicrous extremes.
There is no such thing as a monopoly, just like there is no such thing as price-gouging, in a free market. Without backing from the government, no one can make you pay higher prices against your will. And even with government backing, it’ll still hurt any enterprise to set prices above the market level.
The term “monopolistic practices” is a truly ambiguous concept. The only true monopoly that can exist is that which is mandated by government (cable, telephone, water, electricity). It cannot happen in any other way, because someone can always offer an alternative with government not in the way.
Now, a company can become “like a monopoly” by sheer popularity. Microsoft and Google come close to these in the computer world. But both arrive at their incredible presence because people willing buy their product, which is not mandated to be purchased, by government. Notice how Apple Computer is now coming back, or how Linux is making inroads? Microsoft can be said to have “monopolistic practices” but is certainly not a monopoly, nor is it inherently bad as a “monopolisticly practicing” company.
Get over yourself.
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