Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or just reply to this post!
ping
...a hurricane that hits a major oil-producing region will almost certainly knock supply offline...
Ok, I'm not an economics expert but wouldn't "knocking supply offline" cause a shortage?
Sheesh.
Hurricanes don’t help but they hurt a heck of a lot more than they would if we had adequate refining and transport capacity.
Woo hoo! A Galveston guy on FOX just now looking at his house said, “That’s ok, we’re Texans and we’ll make it work.”
Thanks!
Government price controls are one of my BIGGEST pet peeves in case you couldn’t tell ;)
Hurricanes cause short-term interruptions in the delivery of goods and services. Normally, there is enough in the pipeline, so to speak, to tide over short periods of time, in storage somewhere, already distributed, and there is only a short further delivery to be made by the “middlemen”.
Only when sufficiently large parts of the production points or distribution systems are disrupted, is there much potential for shortage. But considering that the world supply of oil is INCREASING, as evidenced by the FALLING prices of crude oil, this temporary interruption in the supply from the Gulf does not harm the overall access to petroleum.
Probably, but it seems certain that ANNOUNCING a hurricane does.
Why else can you explain the rise in gas prices at the mere mention of a coming breeze.
But when NO DAMAGE actually occurs the prices seem to take a long time to go back down