[BlutoSays]

[Rancid]

What's the point you are trying to make?

[ckaihatsu]

Grandstanding.

Here's from the real-world:

Despite pressure from human rights groups and some Democrats to do so, the administration did not impose any direct sanctions on MBS personally, determining that the damage to Saudi–U.S. relations would be too grave.[193][194][195]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_p ... nistration

[Unthinking Majority]

I don't think gas companies are going to listen to stern tweets with nothing behind them.

Also, price of gas vs oil track fairly closely. Gas doesn't seem as volatile though (gas doesn't rise as much as oil does, nor drop as much when oil does):

https://www.macrotrends.net/2501/crude- ... ices-chart

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/gasoline

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil

[ckaihatsu]

Bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States began in 1933 when full diplomatic relations were established and became formalized in the 1951 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement. Despite the differences between the two countries—an Islamic absolute monarchy, and a secular constitutional republic—the two countries have been allies ever since. The core logic underpinning the relationship is that the United States provides military protection of Saudi Arabia in exchange for a reliable oil supply from the Saudis, pricing of oil in US dollars, and Saudi support for US foreign policy operations across the world.[1]

Ever since the modern U.S.–Saudi relationship began in 1945, the United States has been willing to overlook many of the kingdom's more controversial aspects such as Wahhabism, its human rights and alleged state-sponsored terrorism as long as it maintained oil production and supported U.S. national security policies.[2] Since World War II, the two countries have been allied in opposition to communism, in support of stable oil prices, stability in the oil fields and oil shipping of the Persian Gulf, and stability in the economies of Western countries where Saudis have invested. In particular the two countries were allies against the Soviets in Afghanistan and in the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... _relations

[ckaihatsu]

[The] relationship worsened after the U.S. legislation passed a bill of a that allowed victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the Saudi Arabian government for their losses in 2016.[164]

Saudi Arabia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.[165] The Saudi government has on numerous occasions been actively involved with helping Saudi citizens flee the United States after they have committed serious crimes.[165] In 2019, U.S. federal law enforcement officials launched an investigation into cases involving the disappearance of Saudi Arabian students from Oregon and other parts of the country, while they faced charges in the U.S. Amidst the investigation, it has been speculated that the Saudi government helped the students in escaping from the U.S.[166][167] In October 2019, the U.S. Senate passed a bill by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, requiring the FBI to declassify any information regarding Saudi Arabia's possible role. Oregon officials demand extradition of these suspects by Saudi Arabia since they were involved in violent crimes causing bodily harm and death.[168]

On September 25, 2020, the government of Saudi Arabia offered a bond worth $500,000 as cashier's check to the Tulsa County Sheriff Office from the Saudi Arabian consulate in Houston, Texas to bail out Omar Ba-Abbad, an Uber driver charged with the first-degree murder of a passenger in June 2020. Ba-Abbad was driving for a cab service provider, Uber, in June when he got into a fight with a passenger, Jeremy Shadrick. Ba-Abbad ran over Shadrick in the fight, killing him as a result. Ba-Abbad has claimed in his defense that his act was out of self-defense. However, the District Attorney contradicted his claim with video evidence proving otherwise.[169][170]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... troversies

[Potemkin]

Fair point. As I once told you, market forces are not a conspiracy. Lots of people seem to think they are, including this WH intern. Lol.

The price is rising because there is high demand and low supply. The price mechanism exists in a free market to establish an equilibrium between supply and demand. This is why things have a price at all, instead of just being free. And the price mechanism works, by definition, by pricing some people out of the market in order to lower demand. Tough shit. That’s how free markets work. Lol.

[ckaihatsu]

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia declined requests from the United States to increase its oil production.[155][156] The U.S.-Saudi relations had been strained over the Biden administration's lack of support for the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen.[157] In April 2022, CIA Director William Burns traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with bin Salman, asking him to increase the country’s oil production.[158]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Ara ... lationship

[Rancid]

Fair point. As I once told you, market forces are not a conspiracy. Lots of people seem to think they are, including this WH intern. Lol.

The price is rising because there is high demand and low supply. The price mechanism exists in a free market to establish an equilibrium between supply and demand. This is why things have a price at all, instead of just being free. And the price mechanism works, by definition, by pricing some people out of the market in order to lower demand. Tough shit. That’s how free markets work. Lol.

I'm sure there are plenty of occasions where @BlutoSays claimed that marketw solve all too. lol

[Potemkin]

I'm sure there are plenty of occasions where @BlutoSays claimed that marketw solve all too. lol

It is indeed possible to claim that the free market solves all problems. It just depends what you think qualifies as a ‘problem’, that’s all. The fact that some people always and necessarily are priced out of the market is usually not regarded as a problem by supporters of the free market. Until it happens to them, of course. Lol. In which case, it’s not the free market which is to blame, instead it must be a conspiracy against them. It’s a lib’rul conspiracy, I tells ya!

[ckaihatsu]

Found this -- (!)


'Breaking Bad' actor says Americans should 'stfu' about gas prices if they 'love capitalism so much'

https://news.yahoo.com/apos-breaking-ba ... 00697.html

[Rancid]

Until it happens to them, of course. Lol. In which case, it’s not the free market which is to blame, instead it must be a conspiracy against them. It’s a lib’rul conspiracy, I tells ya!

Basically yes, and that's @BlutoSays

[Pants-of-dog]

The basic price mechanism of supply and demand is at work here, but the profit motive is also to blame.

For example, here in Alberta, we have a huge amount of oil and refineries. And we have a bottleneck when it comes to distributing oil and gas outside our borders. This means that we literally cannot move product quickly enough to take advantage of the intermittent wars in Europe and the increase in demand and decrease in supply that said wars bring. It now takes about three months before we should see any price difference here at home.

But Albertan oil and has companies raised their prices along with everyone else in the world the day the war started. Because they knew they could, and the perception of increased demand and decreased supply was enough.

And why not? Alberta oil and gas companies are making a lot of money.

[QatzelOk]

...market forces are not a conspiracy. Lots of people seem to think they are, including this WH intern. Lol.

At the same time, Rex Tillerson - former Exxon CEO - was recently the Secretary of State.

This means that one of those "market forces" is Regulatory Capture.

And with Regulatory Capture, the public can never really know which forces are market, and which are oligarchic.

Voting "Market Forces" into government, means that we don't have one any more.