Posted on 02/24/2011 4:50:18 PM PST by milwguy
U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought to quell fears on Thursday that unrest in Libya would put oil prices on a long term upward trajectory.
"We actually think that we'll be able to ride out the Libya situation and it will stabilize," Obama, referring to fuel prices, told a group of corporate chief executives.
Geithner said the world had plenty of oil reserves that could be deployed in the event of a sustained disruption to supply. "We have substantial capacity across the major economies in the strategic reserves," he told the executives.
"Hopefully, by reminding people of that and calling attention to the fact that there's a fair amount of excess capacity in parts of OPEC ... hopefully that will make it less likely the market ... starts to build in higher prices over time."
Oil futures were at their highest levels since late August 2008 as the escalating problems in Libya disrupted supply. Brent rose near $120 in intraday trading though it later pulled back to $111.12 in a sell-off sparked by rumors that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had been shot.
Geithner and Obama spoke at the first meeting of a new panel of business leaders the president has asked to come up with ideas to boost U.S. competitiveness and hiring.
Obama encouraged the business leaders not to worry about inflation, an issue executives said was a growing concern.
"I think the emerging issue is inflation," General Electric Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, who is chairing the new panel, told the president during the meeting.
When asked by reporters later whether he was concerned about rising oil prices, Immelt did not answer directly.
"There's a lot going on in the world geopolitically. I think we have to see what happens next and where things settle in,"
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I predict he’ll be unexpectedly wrong.
“We actually think that we’ll be able to ride out the Libya situation and it will stabilize,” Obama said.
...and clap your hands if you believe in fairies. They think we actually believe this stuff, which is an insult.
I predict that they’ll propose to win the future by investing even more money into useless “clean energy” boondoggles...
I was livid thinking the same thing for the last (approximately) 763 days.
Don’t blow sunshine up my butt... you commie bastards!
LLS
So I guess that 6 cent spike that hit us here in Portland on Tuesday is nothing to worry about. I feel much better now.
Yeah, right, a gallon of gas just costs 15 cents more today in my town than it did yesterday...what a bunch of dummies!
Where is Baghdad Bob when you need him?
Zero seems intent on starting another war to help solidify his voting bloc....
$3.04 to $3.36 here in NE Indiana a couple days ago.
And a large percentage of them still haven’t seen the “light” even with all this idiots missteps!
Well, I have been the same for the past two years. I yell at the tv every night. My husband tells me I’m going to have a heart attack one day.
Ride out the Libya situation, sure. You're not there in Libya, waiting for the fleet. But some Americans ARE. Maybe you should be thinking about them...starting over a week ago.
Yeah, and in the Gulf, and in Alaska, and off the coast of Virginia, and all over the west, and in Canada...and what’s being done with using all these resources to stem the tide? Nada, zilch, zero, nothing!
Oh, we can ride out the Arctic drilling ban, the Gulf of Mexico drilling ban, the Colorado Oil shale re-licensing plan, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia okay.
The ultimate result:
Well, F a duck. I guess we couldn't after all. Heh heh heh...
Obama, oh yes he can...
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