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House wants antitrust suit against OPEC (and price of gas)

Nymr83 May 20 2008 04:36 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Nov 24 2008 09:35 PM

[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080520/ts_nm/congress_opec_dc;_ylt=ApetDG6xzLhlp7eHoAtkGedg.3QA[/url] ]The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure ]The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow its about time. i don't like most antitrust laws in general, but if american companies have to compete under these rules then it is about time the foreigners doing business with us got held to the same standard. american companies doing business in europe often are subject to europe's harsher antitrust regime, what good for the goose is good for the gander, if microsoft has to pay fines to the EU let the saudi state oil company be fined by the US.

Kong76 May 20 2008 04:48 PM

YEAH!!! Let's turn up the screws on the guys with the black gold so they ratchet the price of oil up to $300 a barrel. Anyone ever imagine if one of these countries just turned off the spicket for a half a year to show they could? This country would instantly go in the shitter.

batmagadanleadoff May 20 2008 05:09 PM Re: House wants antitrust suit against OPEC Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 20 2008 05:29 PM

="Nymr83"]i don't like most antitrust laws in general.... Without antitrust laws, your monopolistic provider of electricity or gas might one day decide to go into the refrigerator business, and force you buy one of their refrigerators if you want to continue to have electricity or gas or whatever your monopoly provides. Because if they're a monopoly, then you can't get your electricity or gas from any other source. They might even charge you $5,000 for their $500 refrigerator. Or $20,000. But you no longer have a choice. At least, not a reasonable choice. Unless you don't want any more electricity. Of course, without electricity, you won't have much need for a refrigerator either, but that's another story. And the refrigerator they sell you might be a total piece of crap. You could be stuck with a useless and overpriced fridge and your utility provider becomes a dominant player in the refrigerator business overnight without really having to compete fairly against its' competitors. So which antitrust laws do you like?

Nymr83 May 20 2008 05:25 PM

basically the one that opec violates, making it illegal for competitors to sit down together and fix prices. the market should drive prices, and will do so even with a single 'monopolist' providing there are substitute products. the electric utility is a bit of a different story, because it is heavily regulated by the state, con ed is granted a monopoly by the state, they didn't earn it through their business acumen (thats for sure) and for that reason should be heavily regulated. if on the other hand there were competing power companies there would be no need to prevent them from setting their own prices.

batmagadanleadoff May 20 2008 05:33 PM

="Nymr83"]the electric utility is a bit of a different story, because it is heavily regulated by the state, con ed is granted a monopoly by the state...., Would it make any difference if it was a monopoly other than one granted its' monopoly that was forcing its customers to buy refrigerators? By the way, here's the answer I was looking for: "I like the kind of antitrust laws that would prevent Con Edison from forcing me to buy $20,000.00 refrigerators."

Nymr83 May 20 2008 05:48 PM

the answer you were looking for is rather irrelevant to me.

batmagadanleadoff May 20 2008 05:52 PM

Nymr83 wrote: the answer you were looking for is rather irrelevant to me. And the answer you gave me is rather irrelevant to me. (WTF?)

TheOldMole May 21 2008 08:12 AM

I like the kind of antitrust laws that would prevent Con Edison from forcing me to buy $20,000.00 refrigerators.

batmagadanleadoff May 21 2008 08:16 AM

TheOldMole wrote: I like the kind of antitrust laws that would prevent Con Edison from forcing me to buy $20,000.00 refrigerators. Of course you do.

batmagadanleadoff May 21 2008 08:20 AM

TheOldMole wrote: I like the kind of antitrust laws that would prevent Con Edison from forcing me to buy $20,000.00 refrigerators. So where do you suppose this OPEC suit is headed? What does the USA intend to do -- boycott OPEC oil?

AG/DC Oct 27 2008 07:33 AM

Mmmm. OPEC oil. Anyhow this thread seemed to be a good place to note that I spotted $2.37 gas in Delaware yesterday. "Baby, pull over." "Nah, it's on the other side of the street." "$2.37!!"

Edgy DC Nov 23 2008 11:10 PM

Caught some $1.79 fuel this weekend. It was like the good ol' days. A campaign bumper sticker was proclaiming a few months back what the gas price was when Bush took office. I thought, of all the good reasons to vote against his party, that one sucks. Should we have voted McCain if the gas fell this far a month earlier?

Nymr83 Nov 24 2008 12:22 AM

1.77 in part of NJ where i was today, still over $2.20 here on Staten Island

Benjamin Grimm Nov 24 2008 04:22 AM

I paid $1.89 yesterday morning.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Nov 24 2008 04:42 AM

1.879 this weekend in Joisey

holychicken Nov 24 2008 07:13 AM

The cheapest I have seen is 2.23. Stupid LI.

Valadius Nov 24 2008 09:20 AM

We have something like $2.07 here in DC.

Willets Point Nov 24 2008 09:25 AM

I take public transit and only care about the price of home heating oil.

Benjamin Grimm Nov 24 2008 09:43 AM

I live in my car and only care about the price of gasoline. When I drove into New Jersey on Saturday to get my Shea Stadium sign, I was surprised that the gas wasn't any cheaper on the Jersey side of the Delaware. Usually, because of taxes and stuff, the gas in Pennsylvania is about a dime more expensive than in New Jersey. But this past weekend I was seeing the same $1.87 through $1.95 on both sides of the river.

Willets Point Nov 24 2008 10:07 AM

Do you live in a van down by the river?

Rockin' Doc Nov 24 2008 07:39 PM

Filled up with regular unleaded for $1.71 this morning. Filled my wife's car in Burlington, NC this weekend for $1.65.