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Volatile Swings in Price of Oil Stir Fears on Recovery
NY Times ^ | July 06, 2009 | JAD MOUAWAD

Posted on 07/06/2009 2:00:51 AM PDT by RobinMasters

The extreme volatility that has gripped oil markets for the last 18 months has shown no signs of slowing down, with oil prices more than doubling since the beginning of the year despite an exceptionally weak economy.

The instability of oil and gas prices is puzzling government officials and policy analysts, who fear it could jeopardize a global recovery. It is also hobbling businesses and consumers, who are already facing the effects of a stinging recession, as they try in vain to guess where prices will be a year from now — or even next month.

A wild run on the oil markets has occurred in the last 12 months. Last summer, prices surged to a record high above $145 a barrel, driving up gasoline prices to well over $4 a gallon. As the global economy faltered, oil tumbled to $33 a barrel in December. But oil has risen 55 percent since the beginning of the year, to $70 a barrel, pushing gas prices up again to $2.60 a gallon, according to AAA, the automobile club.

“To call this extreme volatility might be an understatement,” said Laura Wright, the chief financial officer at Southwest Airlines, a company that has sought to insure itself against volatile prices by buying long-term oil contracts. “Over the past 15 to 18 months, this has been unprecedented. I don’t think it can be easily rationalized.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 07/06/2009 2:00:51 AM PDT by RobinMasters
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To: RobinMasters

Markets get whacked tomorrow. Not looking good.

http://www.cme.com

commods getting smoked, too.

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/cfutures.html


2 posted on 07/06/2009 2:08:42 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (What kind of organization answers the phone if you call a suicide hotline in Gaza City?)
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To: RobinMasters

one word -> manipulation


3 posted on 07/06/2009 2:27:01 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: RobinMasters
The Obama administration is working overtime to raise the price of oil. Higher gasoline prices make mini-cars and electric cars more competitive.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/588tpmuu.asp

4 posted on 07/06/2009 2:39:01 AM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Anticipating the calamity at the polls, I published a series of urgent recommendations for the Republicans to save themselves. Here is recommendation #6, posted October 15, 2006. To repeat, October 15, 2006

6. The house should pass every conceivable energy measure such as drilling in Anwar, drilling offshore and around Florida etc. providing for refineries, providing for nuclear power plants and let the Democrats and the Rinos oppose them and create a climate in which the people can direct their rage about gas prices at the Democrats.


5 posted on 07/06/2009 2:47:47 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Obama can keep his minicars. I'll be rocketing past them on this, which I have just purchased for $500 - and which gets 50mpg.

[img]http://www.dallasdrivers.org/gallery/d/28112-2/IMG_4211.JPG[/img]

1998 Honda Pacific Coast PC800 motorcycle.

6 posted on 07/06/2009 2:57:55 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr
Argh, when will FR start using img tags like every other board on the internet???? Here's the pic.


7 posted on 07/06/2009 2:58:53 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: RobinMasters
The instability of oil and gas prices is puzzling government officials soothsayers and policy analysts fortune tellers, who fear it could jeopardize a global recovery.

Fixed it.

8 posted on 07/06/2009 3:05:09 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: An.American.Expatriate

We should be drilling and building refineries, Instead we are not drilling and we are closing refineries.

I suppose that makes sense to Democrts, but it’s end result will raise energy costs. Which appears to be their goal.


9 posted on 07/06/2009 3:14:07 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: RobinMasters

Gee, I guess it’s time to take over the oil companies Mr. Chave...er...I mean, Mr Obama.


10 posted on 07/06/2009 3:25:47 AM PDT by brewer1516
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To: Venturer

True, but we didn’t exactly force a change when we had the chance!


11 posted on 07/06/2009 3:28:05 AM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: RobinMasters

The system is being fed uppers and downers. It’s in cardiac arrest.


12 posted on 07/06/2009 3:29:26 AM PDT by bkepley
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To: Spktyr
[img]http://www.dallasdrivers.org/gallery/d/28112-2/IMG_4211.JPG[/img]

vs. < > on FR.

...or do you mean EVERYONE ELSE uses the square brackets, and FR is the odd one out? I usually don't examine the page source anywhere else...

Cheers!

13 posted on 07/06/2009 3:29:46 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Even if you change from square brackets to the HTML type brackets, it still won’t parse properly. Try it. You have to do the full HTML code for embedding

Damn near every other forum, BBS, or related site on the internet uses the VBB-type code - where you stick a tag in square brackets before and after the URL and it parses it automatically. FR is the only major site (that allows object embedding) I’ve run across in years that *doesn’t* do this.

In addition, FR is the only major site that allows includes that doesn’t use VBB tags for text formatting. Or smilies. Or anything else.

For an example of how they work, go on over to FinalGear.com and enter their forums. Check out how much easier it is to embed a pic, or add a URL, or format text there.


14 posted on 07/06/2009 3:40:06 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Here’s a dictionary of the VBB or vB Code:

http://www.xtremevbtalk.com/misc.php?do=bbcode


15 posted on 07/06/2009 3:41:42 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Now, here’s the Wikipedia page on the BBcode system, which is almost identical and is free for anyone to implement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode

Which then makes one wonder why we have never done it here.

http://www.bbcode.org/


16 posted on 07/06/2009 3:45:09 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Most importantly, adding BBcode items to the middle of a post, unlike on FR, doesn’t mean that in order to preserve your paragraph structure you have to go back through your entire post and add paragraph or line breaks.


17 posted on 07/06/2009 3:49:47 AM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: RobinMasters
There will be no recovery until the dims and the muzzie marxist in chief are no longer running things... and even then it will take years to repair their damage.

LLS

18 posted on 07/06/2009 4:48:49 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (hussein will NEVER be my President... NEVER!!!)
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To: Spktyr
1998 Honda Pacific Coast PC800 motorcycle, $500

Dude, for that price, its hot or broke. Which is it?

19 posted on 07/06/2009 4:53:32 AM PDT by MrPiper
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To: Spktyr

Would you like some cheese for that whine? ;^)


20 posted on 07/06/2009 4:55:18 AM PDT by BullDog108 (A Smith & Wesson beats four aces)
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