"Speculation raises prices; not lower it."

- speculation does both...speculators can profit from lower stocks and prices by selling short or betting on the futures markets


"I could've sworn that the trending was directly inline with china and india both consuming less oil in combination with the US. The price of oil has come down because of less demand."

- there wasn't 600% more demand between 2003 when oil was under $25 a barrel and 2008 when oil was $150 a barrel, and there hasn't been a 50% reduction in demand since july...supply and demand are factors but speculation is a greater factor


"If hiring comes to a halt demand will drop off."

- if job creation comes to a halt, and the population remains constant, demand should be relatively stable because employment levels will be the same (barring other economic factors)


"I've already explained how lowering taxes would achieve the same if not better results."

- it didn't work for ronald reagan or george bush...that theory is based on the laffer curve...at some point, the reduction in taxes will have a negative effect...in george bush's case, the expansion of the economy had more to do with low interest rates and the real estate bubble...tax cuts and stimulus checks failed to save america from that disaster so i don't expect more tax cuts will work either...both obama and mccain are going to add trillions to the national debt while leaving the unfunded liabilities in medicaid and social security for another president's crisis management team...the longer that debt is put aside, the worse the correction is going to be

Laffer Curve


"if a producer has a demand for 200 sodas at 99 cents a pop but wants to sell it at 1.25 then he would reduce supply to reflect the price at which he wants to sell it."

- in the real world, that isn't how soda or oil is priced:
Oil speculators 'riding roughshod' over OPEC, say analysts