AMERICA IS PAYING A BILLION DOLLARS A DAY OR MORE IN HIDDEN FUEL/COMMODITY SCAM PRICING
$20 BILLION A MONTH STOLEN "AT THE PUMP" WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD BEING SAID
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Like many of Americans, I spent my years in the oil business. I "worked" years in banking and finance of oil and gas production/refining and trade and currently consult with several OPEC producers including Iraq, Nigeria, Ghana and others. In fact, I am still recovering from a three week travelers "illness" after visiting Africa regarding a petroleum project. Petrodollars are, perhaps, the best potential many countries have for building a strong democracy and a just society. It would certainly be nice if more bucks ended up paying for schools, power plants, clean water and medical care instead of private jets and loading up the already bulging Swiss banks.
Oil producing nations around the world deal, on a daily basis, with questions of oil revenue, corruption and ethics. Many countries, like Nigeria, are working far harder than you would suspect to bring these problems under control. Nigeria, a country often maligned for its "scammers" can jail top government officials for taking bribes but in America thieves can live and steal with impunity year after year. How is oil scamming hitting us now with our new lower prices at the pump?
A few short weeks ago, we were paying over $4 per gallon for gas. As the DOE (Department of Energy) chart above LIES ABOUT, gas prices were pushing $2 per gallon in 1972 and were well over $3 in 1981. Those of us who weren’t kids at the time know we were paying 36 cents a gallon then. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6440 Who are they trying to kid? In 1981, I was living in Houston buying gas for 79 cents a gallon, not $3.18. Are we all that stupid? Why the continual subterfuge from our own government?
Gasoline went up to $4 a gallon based on $147 a barrel crude oil during the summer. However, oil is now "listed" at $69-70 per barrel but gas is now $3 per gallon. If you don’t think this makes sense, it gets worse. Oil companies really don’t pay the $69-70. Oil pricing is based on discounts from an established daily market price set by Platts Marketscan. ( www.platts.com ) When oil prices went up, oil companies negotiated prices at huge discounts off the Platts (now $69-70 !!!) price. In reality, much of the light crude being shipped to America is being bought for as low as $53-56 per barrel. Even oil shipping costs are down as the fuel ships run on is much cheaper too. ( www.bunkerworld.com ) Even natural gas that runs refineries is cheap. Gas we pay $2.85 – 3.29 per gallon for should be selling for closer to $1.60.
Based on our average usage of gasoline at 390,000,000 gallons per day plus our diesel usage and a minimum $1 per gallon overcharge from price fixing, we are being taxed by "Big Oil" at the rate of $20 Billion per month or nearly a quarter Trillion dollars per year. http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
While candidates are running around the country demanding we drill for oil in every backyard, off every beach and in every wildlife preserve, OPEC is trying to cut production a million barrels a day because there is nowhere left to store the excess oil. Without the help of oil speculators and "Big Oil," market forces would have pushed oil to $40 per barrel or less justifying gas prices as low as $1.20 per gallon or less. Imagine getting $35 bucks taken off your bill every time you fill your tank? Could you use the money?
Yet, this extra money seldom shows up in oil company profits. As much as they do show, it is only nickels and dimes compared to the real profits that simple math will show should be there. If the money doesn’t go to the oil producing countries and the oil company stockholders, some of whom are actually Americans, where does it go? Well, nobody seems to know. Is that a surprise?
The 2/3rds of the money in America and Europe suddenly gone, gone and forgotten due to the drunken foolishness of "deregulators" and fraudsters combined with the billions and maybe trillions scammed in oil, gas, minerals, agricultural commodities and chemicals that cheats and speculators have taken, has crushed the world’s poor and impoverished many of the not so poor.
Returned to the "free market," these billions and trillions could be the "bailout" we need without the massive new debt. Costs would plummet and profits soar in industry after industry that is being choked to death by speculators. Money would flow into banks and jobs would return to our communities. Some call this capitalism. Why do those who talk about the "free market" hate it so in real life?
When the speculators ran oil thru the roof they ran everything up also from iron ore and fertilizer to wheat. They aren’t just bilking Americans at the pump and the grocery store, they are also starving the world. If you think oil went up, you should see the price of rice. Once rice was all millions around the world had to eat. Now they don’t even have that. Why?
Speculators, cheats, liars and their friends in banking and government have managed to "disappear" trillions already and are stealing more every day. Just go to a supermarket and look at the shelves. With oil cheap again, why are we spending billions on ethanol, the $11 dollar a gallon miracle fuel almost no vehicle can use? Who profits from the ethanol and "biofuel" scams? How much money do they donate? How many billions in our tax dollars do we give them as a reward for their manipulation of world fuel and agricultural commodity markets?
Why is flour and sugar so high? Did they fill Brazil and Canada with corn to make ethanol that nobody has seen? Where is all the ethanol? Try to buy some. Good luck finding it.
With economy after economy around the world crashing, why are food prices rocketing? Anyone suspect we are being played?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gordon Duff is a Senior Staff Writer for VeteransToday.com. He is a U.S. Marine Vietnam Combat Veteran and regular contributor on social and political issues. He holds a United Nations diplomatic post.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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