Demon-- For every Enron employee/ stock holder that lost money, there are plenty of former enron employees out there that are now very well off (and i am not taking about skilling/ lay, C** position guys)-- What happened with Enron WAS a shame esp. for those employees that were forced to stay in the company via retirement programs, etc. but at the end of the day, you have many shareholders/ employees that stayed in the stock out of sheer GREED--.
"There is no supply problem"-- I tend to disagree. At current projected growth rates in consumption with growth in China, India and Russia, we will need something like 200 mmb/d of production in 20 years (currently about 90mm/ day)-- The major producing countries of Iraq, Iran, Saudi and Kuwait are operating at or near max production with little growth in production forecasted--remember oil IS a depleating/ depleated resource. -- By the way, The US production is a spec of total global production (~10%), so blaming US corporates, while fashionable, is not productive--The US is a price taker not price setter with respect to global oil prices (hence they dont have pricing power at all)-- The arabs set the price and the US corporates drive retail pricing of downstream products off the market price of their inputs-- It is rather simple, the arabs own the oil and WILL eventually over the long term own significant wealth in the US unless we open Alaska AND cut demand-- At the end of the day, global demand is catching up to us and $5/ diesel at the pump may seem like a bargain in 10 years (and it is not Exxon's fault)-- |