The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.
In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers’ microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: “My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries.“There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don’t want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec.”
After around 40 minutes press officials cut off the feed, which had been accidentally broadcast to the press room.
Almost as embarrassing as your hack stories.
You fail as an editor.
We’ll have to give them water for oil. Can’t live without water. Can live without $100.00 a barrel oil.
Time to add Saudi to the Axis of Evil.
Here is a listing of countries whose currencies are pegged to the US Dollar (oil-producing nations in bold)
Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba (convertible Peso), Djibouti, Organisation of East Caribbean States, Eritrea, Hong Kong, Jordan, Lebanon, Maldives, Netherlands Antilles, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela
They could easily wreck their own economies if they undermine the US Dollar prematurely.
Only one thing to say really “D’oh”
1,
James, you’re the living end!
6. End of a horse?
7. That deserves a LOLCAT!
#2,
THEY arent charging you $100 per barrel.
That is a MARKET price, that is the STORE/RETAIL price after markups.
the idea is that they WILL have to raise the price, if the dollar keeps slipping.
But, i want someone to look back into history… After Every LARGE borrowing from other countries, the USA have DROPPEd the dollar, to pay it Back. just to kill the interest rate, and make the LOAN worthless.
the main problem comes from the Prices of goods and the poor cant afford to buy ANYTHING for the next 10+ years. As the import taxes are going Straight to pay off the loans, they are raised and the poor cant buy much of anything.
the sky is falling the sky is falling. At least our econonmy is in some part not completly based on a dwindling supply of oil. There are plenty of oil reserves outside the mideast sandbox.
Perhaps what we need is to keep some of the money at home instead of giving it to Saudi Arabia. Check out this NY Times Op Ed on a gasoline tax and how it would help our economy rather than giving all the money to the oil rich nations.
9,
OIL is not a “market price”. It’s a fixed price set by an oligarchy.
10.
Yes, there is lots of oil. But until the wells make the sound of a straw sucking the last drips from a take-away paper cup, they are not going to seriously look elsewhere. They’ve got a huge industry built up in war and profiteering that has many more trillions to absorb.
ECA,
Perhaps if we’d conserve a little oil here at home instead of driving honking huge-assed SUVs, the market price would drop a tad.
Nonsense, I don’t think anyone really understands how big the US economy really is. If anything, statements like the ones in the article indicate the slide is probably over; if not already overdone.
Equally likely (and remote) is the Saudis running into problems if the US ever decides to be fully commited to an alternative energy program.
Currency swings are like a pendulum, once it goes too far it moves back the other way. As a Canadian you see the cross border shopping heat up when the currency swings too far. A couple of years ago it was folks coming to Canada from the state, now its reversed direction.
And what fraction of US oil consumption is due to SUVs, Misanthrope?
Dear Scott,
I would suggest you look at the USE’s of oil and then compare how much you are paying JUST to tar your roof, spraying on a cockroach, thats being processed into Butane for your lighter, or used as a accelerant/expansion product for your Shaving cream/hair spray/deodorant/bug spray…
Get off your Rump and start your research before you make a comment. Looking up Fuel cracking towers
ECA –
But it’s obvious except to the blind – all we need to do to end Global Warming is to stop driving SUV’s.
“We’ll have to give them water for oil. Can’t live without water. Can live without $100.00 a barrel oil.”
only an idiot would miss that at $100+/barrel these guys can buy plenty of desalination plants, and that we’ll still be paying for oil.
what a loser.
LOL, I misread “oligarchy” as “Oiligarchy”. I think it fits better that way.
Anyone who holds a whole bunch of something does not want it’s value to drop, and the “oiligarchies” (heheh) certainly have enough US dollars. Maybe they suddenly realized that the US was going to end up with a high inflation if the oil prices stay high due to the fighting in Iraq, and that’s why the violence there is falling off. They are no longer funding it.
dear Justin,
??
Its FIXED as a WHOLESALE Price.
Its NOT fixed as a RESALE product.
YOU are paying a MARKET price. that is being pushed up by the STOCK EXCHANGE…
Let me say it this way.
A farmer gets $1.80 per 100 pounds of potatoes…TRUE
YOU PAY $1.59 for 4oz at McD’s
If you paid for 4-4oz fires at McD’s $6.36 you could have almost 400 pounds of potatoes..
Prices are being INFLATED.
ECA,
It’s not about percentage. It’s about doing what we can. Each of us has a power far greater than anyone in any other country to reduce oil use. Our per capita oil use is higher than any other country by far. This should be empowering. We can change things a little at a time. If you point to more places to save oil, all I can say is great!! Save everywhere we can. Don’t use so many plastic shopping bags. Bring your own canvas bags to the market. Don’t heat to 78 degrees in winter and then cool to 68 degrees in summer, as so many of us do. There are so many places we can save energy without any reduction in our lifestyles that it’s mind-boggling.
ECA –
Commodities exchange, actually.
In the stock market, you’re buying a share of a company.
In the commodities market, you’re buying future delivery of a given product.
SCOTT,
WRONG..
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/opec.html
Its about Money people WANTING more money..
they are bidding against THEMSELVES..
shell/BP/and others OWN the ships, OWN the distribution system, and ONLY THEY can bid on the prices.
It all comes back to the USA. It dont matter the ship. If we are fighting 4 major corps that are Bidding themSELVES into the dirt, it would go DOWN.
Its not.
they are bidding the price UP. to make money.
there are some reasons for this, but NONE are logical.
1. they are being forced to make ALTERNATIVES, and they WONT be making the same profit. they are getting us ready to PAY that Markup.
2. better economic cars. Lack of sales. they are looking to the future and making SURE they get their MONEY.
3. IF’ we goto hydrogen and Electric(interesting idea) they will be OUT of business. there are OLD prototypes that have been Stolen/buried/held incognito for years, that could prove horrendous to them.
4. the military spends MORE on 1 ship then the WHOLE fleet of truckers running 24/7 in 1 year.
5. OIL, OIL, OIL…Who is in the OIL business? WHO is leaving office SOON?? WHO wants to look good when he gets OUT??
6. WE GET 60-70% of our oil from the Americas…NOT the middle east.
> Our per capita oil use is higher than any
> other country by far.
That’s because we’re the richest group of people in the world. We WANT the good life.
> Save everywhere we can. Don’t use so many
> plastic shopping bags. Bring your own canvas
> bags to the market.
If everybody started using canvas bags for groceries then, on average, we would start using more gas to get them to the market.
Then we would have to start washing them because they would get dirty after awhile. More water and electricity there.
> Don’t heat to 78 degrees in winter and then
> cool to 68 degrees in summer, as so many of
> us do.
I tried that “less heat in the winter” thing once. I spent extra money on blankets — which meant the factory has to use more electricity because of increased production. And, of course, I had to drive my SUV to the store because I wasn’t about to drive a go-cart on snow-covered roads. Too many crazies out there in _their_ SUVs just waiting to run me over.
And Summer Time? Don’t get me started about all of the extra fans I had scattered all through the house and the electricity they used . . .
ECA,
So, let me get this straight. You honestly believe that if we successfully reduced world demand for oil, the price would not drop? Have you not heard of supply and demand?
Mr. Trade Off,
You appear to be suffering from craneo-rectal-insertion. I have no idea how you think the way you do and no idea where to begin to correct the thought process, but here goes.
> Our per capita oil use is higher than any
> other country by far.
That’s because we’re the richest group of people in the world. We WANT the good life.
Do you mean to say that driving a more fuel efficient car that does exactly the same thing as the less fuel efficient car is a worse life? Do you believe that a better quality of light from CFLs where you can choose a color other than the dingy yellow of incandescents and even halogens makes for a bad life?
If everybody started using canvas bags for groceries then, on average, we would start using more gas to get them to the market.
That would require a bit of explanation. I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.
Then we would have to start washing them because they would get dirty after awhile. More water and electricity there.
And still, we’d use less power than it takes to make a plastic bag for every shopping occurrence. And still, we’d use less petroleum than it takes to be both the raw material for the plastic and the energy to convert the petroleum into plastic. And, we wouldn’t leave behind a pile of garbage that, quite literally, never biodegrades, even when it breaks down into smaller and smaller bits. Polymers last hundreds of millions of years.
I tried that “less heat in the winter” thing once. I spent extra money on blankets — which meant the factory has to use more electricity because of increased production. And, of course, I had to drive my SUV to the store because I wasn’t about to drive a go-cart on snow-covered roads. Too many crazies out there in _their_ SUVs just waiting to run me over.
And Summer Time? Don’t get me started about all of the extra fans I had scattered all through the house and the electricity they used . . .
That’s just total fucking bullshit. There is no way that any of these things added up to the cost of the fuel for heating and air conditioning. And, most do not need to be purchased every month the way that more oil and electricity does.
Pedro –
You’re definitely right about Hugo, but I was referring mainly to the Saudis. They are not known for recklessness.
I think “Global Warming” is at best, a fad, at worst a hysterical fraud, and I think it will be forgotten within a decade or two, just as “the coming ice age”, “nuclear winter”, “acid rain” and “the ozone hole”. But that doesn’t mean I think that saving energy and reducing pollution are essential.
And I think the constant baiting of SUV drivers is lame, even though I do not own an SUV, and I hardly drive it at all on evenings and weekends, as I can walk to everything I need except my work.
Scott,
first release of a product a price is HIGH.
Wait 6 months and the price falls
as the product goes down MORE buy it
As the product becomes Obsolete, the price goes up, because there are MANY machines that use it, STILL out there.
supply and demand only works with competition.
THERE ISNT ANY.
This is Price gouging.