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Topic: Fiat Dollar cause of rising gas prices in the U.S? (Read 1840 times)

sr. member
Activity: 350
Merit: 251
Oil prices now are due to both inflation and other factors.

The demand for oil is ever growing. more countries will need more oil as they become industrialized.

Population is still growing, although i think it has started to level off. (as an aside, it should be noted that fossil fuels are the only reason we were able to exceed way more than a billion world population. When it runs out, will this be sustainable? this graph [x] looks like a rockets trajectory, except i fear its landing will be like a parachute inflated when it begins to fall.)

More uses for oil

speculation and other fake/artificial (BS like speculation and silly "trying to make a quick profit by aggressively managing portfolios".) market interference. I am a big supporter of making things more simple, as complex systems almost never work out for long.

War. The military uses a "shitload" of oil. It also makes you less friendly with other countries, and in turn tariffs and such will go up against you.

just a small list, although there are likely a lot of other reasons.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
I watched (most of) Gas Hole last night. I am unconvinced that there is a coverup of ultra-efficient cars. The gas price "conspiracy" is just the result of market speculation and inflation. Pretty much everyone interviewed seemed to implicitly believe the labor-theory of value. Now, is there market manipulation going on? Most likely, but the movie didn't go into enough detail about this to be interesting (at least not up to the point I fell asleep).
member
Activity: 61
Merit: 10
Are you saying that some information in the film is inaccurate?
This movie basically said that evil oil corporations prevent us to use water as fuel. Any hillbilly that tried to do that, was isolated and all evidence of progress and success were destroyed.
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
Web Dev, Db Admin, Computer Technician
Are you saying that some information in the film is inaccurate?

A simple search on Wikipedia will show that Standard Oil has (or still does, as it's unlikely they would give up such control) own majority of all oil markets worldwide.
This would at least support the Documentaries position in who controls the oil.
full member
Activity: 402
Merit: 100
🦜| Save Smart & Win 🦜
There are 7 corporations that control all of the oil in the entire world, 6 are owned by the Rockefeller family.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/231050/gashole
I stopped watching that video after a 100 MPG car patent from the 50s was eliminated due to conspiracy theory.
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
Web Dev, Db Admin, Computer Technician
There are 7 corporations that control all of the oil in the entire world, 6 are owned by the Rockefeller family.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/231050/gashole
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
What the hell... he says that oil is tied to gold which is absurd. They are two commodities and they function just like every other commodity based on supply and demand. Then he uses the price of oil in gold over time to estimate that oil is under-priced by 75 cents, but that is like saying the price of bread is under-priced because corn's price is higher than the traditional bread-to-corn price ratio. The reality is that gold has seen a huge surge in demand with all of the financial crises and has thus risen more sharply than the price of oil.

I really don't think we've seen anything yet when it comes to the financial bailouts. The value of the dollar is probably going to plummet in the next decade. Why gas is so high right now? I don't know, but the US has enjoyed the lowest non-middle east gas prices in the world for a very long time and is only finally starting to catch up.
legendary
Activity: 1246
Merit: 1014
Strength in numbers
I didn't watch it.

It seems to make sense that gas would be getting more precious over time. It makes no sense whatsoever that dollars would be getting more precious to match. So the change in the ratio of their values isn't a surprise to me.
full member
Activity: 402
Merit: 100
🦜| Save Smart & Win 🦜
http://youtu.be/S8WReKlUFP4

Of course I don't like fiat currency, and I am glad the video raises awareness of the fallacy of the fiat dollar.

But I find this guy's explanation unconvincing.
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