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I would say it’s both. They’re leaving oil in the ground enough to create the justification saying “If you don’t pay me $100 per barrel I’ll sell it to someone who will.”

There's a bit of that with OPEC, but that's nothing new, and they're no more effective at it then they've ever been. Oil companies, on the other hand, pump whatever they can, because that's how they make money. Oil companies aren't the bad guy any more than pharmaceutical companies are, John McCain's idiotic comments notwithstanding.

“Oil companies aren’t the bad guy any more than pharmaceutical companies are”

I strongly disagree with that statement. Pharmaceutical companies are part of the pictur e in the inordinately high cost of health care in the US. The pharmaceutical companies sell their NAME BRANDED products in socialist countries and other third world countries at prices where they are not making a net profit on the products sold there. This is because the socialist countries dictate what can be charged for a drug. The pharma companies do so because they want to maintain their name brand recognition and dominance in the world market by being competetive with cheap generic products that are produced in places like India, China and Pakistan. It has nothing to do with wanting to protect the people from “bad drugs.” (Sorry, but the truth is that pharma companies are businesses and they are trying to make a profit. There is nothing at all wrong with that...that is how markets stay viable) The pharma companies also “give” tons of free medication to extremely impoverished areas in the world. In order to maintain a reasonable overall net profit, the prices that are charged in the US are higher. The reality is that the US consumers are paying for socialist countries being able to provide “free” health care and cheap drugs to their people. In order to prevent US consumers from accessing these cheaper drugs (and maintain the portion of their market which allows them to be profitable) the pharma are behind the push to keep US consumers from being able to purchase medications from outside of the US. It really irks me when liberals cry about how other countries have better health care systems and that the US should do better. And it even pisses me off more when I hear people from socialist countries talk down about the US health care. The socialist countries are paying for this health care, at least in part, with the dollars that the US consumers are paying for medications. What is the solution??? You tell me! I’m in the health care field and have no desire to work for peanuts!