Posted on 03/02/2008 10:35:00 AM PST by MeanGreen2008
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia.
He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia.
The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency.
Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."
“This is FARCin’ war!”
Do you understand that they are in competition with each other for your business? Oil producers compete with other oil producers; refineries compete with other refineries; gas stations compete with other gas stations. If one gas station sells gas for $3/gallon and the one across the street can make more money by undercutting him, they will. But when costs get high enough, it's not worth it.
This is kind of beside the point, but on what basis do you claim that "the ablility for the general public to pay $3 or more per gallon was greater 5 years ago than today"? I can't imagine any sense in which that's a true statement.
That kind of leaves a few holes in your theory.
My "theory" is just basic economics. Buy this book by Thomas Sowell and read it. I'm dead serious - if conservatism is to survive we need people who understand economics, and Sowell is the best out there at explaining it. That's how I learned.
Colombia's military said on Saturday troops had killed Raul Reyes, a leader of Marxist FARC rebels, during an attack on a jungle camp in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency. The operation included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the frontier.
Congratulations to Uribe on the Big Get!!!
Go Uribe! Kick the REAL diablo's ass.
Hmmm, I smell "sulphur".....
If he were his own master that might be true. But I don’t think he will be on his own.
Could be, with Saudi and Kuwait warning their citizens to get out of Lebanon immediately and US ships steaming for Lebanon. Something big could be up.
And not surprisingly, no one seems to be willing to try to answer that.
Uribe is the man we should be talking about here!
What is the feeling out in the streets? Does the Columbian government popular support?
Impressed.
The entire Mexican army (tactical units) is only about six brigades.
“Do you understand that they are in competition with each other for your business?”
Then why is it world events, rather than competition, that seems to be determining the rise in oil prices? How has the level of competition changed?
“But when costs get high enough, it’s not worth it.”
What costs? I don’t see any labor shortage for getting the oil out of the ground or running the refineries, refineries getting carpet-bombed into oblivion..etc. They don’t raise the prices because they need to...they raise the prices because they can. Because they figure they’ve got the general public over a barrel.
“....but on what basis do you claim that “the ablility for the general public to pay $3 or more per gallon was greater 5 years ago than today”?
The loss in purchasing power due to the dollar’s decrease in value.
“....if conservatism is to survive we need people who understand economics,....”
If conservatism is to survive we need people who are real conservatives running the GOP. So far the GOP is on the slippery slope to becoming Dems Light.
Sigh. Increased demand is the primary driver of higher oil prices. India and China especially are using more oil than they used to.
What costs?
For a gas station owner, the cost of buying the gasoline from the refinery/distributor. For the refinery, the cost of buying the crude oil from the oil producer. At that point, it's the cost of outbidding other buyers for the oil available for delivery.
They don’t raise the prices because they need to...they raise the prices because they can.
Yes. That's how the free market works. But if someone else undercuts their price, it stops working. That's how competition works. Costs come into play when it becomes impossible for a competitor to make money by lowering their prices to gain business. And the primary cost is the cost of outbidding other buyers for crude oil.
Because they figure they’ve got the general public over a barrel.
You really need to figure out who the "they" is that you're talking about. Gas stations charge what they do because they have to; their margins are very small, on the order of 10-12 cents per gallon if they're lucky. Refineries charge what the market will bear for their refined products, but their margins aren't huge either.
The oil producers - the companies that actually extract the oil from the ground - are making a lot of money. But they don't have the power to lower the price of the oil they sell! If they would sell 10 million barrels to Company X for an artificially low price, say $10 per barrel, Company X would just re-sell it to the highest bidder at $100/barrel. All you've accomplished is taking profit from a company that actually does something productive and given it to a company that just buys and sells.
Oil producers aren't just sitting there saying "if you don't give me $100 per barrel I'm going to leave it in the ground." They're saying "if you don't pay me $100 per barrel I'll sell it to someone who will." And plenty of others will.
It really is simple supply and demand. And I really don't understand how a "conservative" can try to make some kind of grand, evil conspiracy out of it.
Yes, that too.
What a good pretext for Uncle Sam to come to Bogota's assistance as part of a mutual defense effort, and take out that scumbag over in Caracas once and for all, installing a regime more to our and the Venezuelan peoples' liking.
Wow, the nutter Chavez vs the Med. cartels. What a shootout? And please, Ms Rice and the UN, let them shoot it out for say about a year.
“....and take out that scumbag over in Caracas once and for all, installing a regime more to our and the Venezuelan peoples’ liking.”
Like we’ve done in Iraq? Installing a govt that’s more to IRAN’s liking?
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