2 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Is there an adult somewhere nearby?

You know the answers. All adults were fired and all that is left is the Kindergarten and a ghoul.

Well, this certainly supports that:

(AP) President Donald Trump invoked Pearl Harbor while defending the U.S. strike on Iran and his decision not to alert allies in advance, saying during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi: “Who knows surprise better than Japan?”

🙄

Mr MAGA,

Who knew Iran would be tougher to beat up than a 13-year old girl?

16 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Who knew Iran would be tougher to beat up than a 13-year old girl?

What do you mean ?
According to D Trump, this is the second time they've beaten Iran in less than a year.
Just last summer they completely destroyed and obliterated ( contrary to his own Intelligence services ) Iran's ability to make nuclear weapons, but Iran is so advanced they were able to rebuild, and threaten the world again, in a few short months !!!

Similarly, that little girl will come back to threaten his Presidency real soon.

Mister president. Why do you allow the petroleum corporations to increase the local fuel prices if the U.S. is not suffering from the orient supply ?

Is it the same "because they can" and you do not give a sheet ?

If U. S. is exporting its surplus, has to mean does not need to import from anywhere nor the orient in trouble.

Is the latest game now buying from Venezuela; pumping the price and selling to Europe and squeezing wallets to the U.S. consumer ? When will you defend the pockets of your U.S. citizens from the inflation now worsened with these greedy practices ?

An actual POTUS would help inflation and suffering the whims of a global energy market by supporting wind power, instead of attacking it. The US has one of the largest wind supplies in the world and we don't have to haul the wind in on tankers. Onshore wind in particular has the lowest longterm generation costs of any energy source. We should be building out enhanced distribution grids AFAHP.

2 hours ago, Externet said:

Mister president. Why do you allow the petroleum corporations to increase the local fuel prices if the U.S. is not suffering from the orient supply ?

Is it the same "because they can" and you do not give a sheet ?

If U. S. is exporting its surplus, has to mean does not need to import from anywhere nor the orient in trouble.

Is the latest game now buying from Venezuela; pumping the price and selling to Europe and squeezing wallets to the U.S. consumer ? When will you defend the pockets of your U.S. citizens from the inflation now worsened with these greedy practices ?

This is not how markets work. Both crude oil and refined petroleum products are globally traded commodities. As such, buyers have to pay the price at which these commodities are traded, just as with gold, coffee or any other commodity.

The price of many refined products has jumped because supply is now short, globally. That affects buyers in N. America even if the physical supply does not come from the Persian Gulf.

It is not a question of the president “allowing” prices to increase. If he wanted to stop that he would have to pass a law enforcing government price control of these products. And then supply would soon dry up, because sellers would find it more profitable to export instead of supplying the N American market.

To stop that, he would then have to ban exports. And then investment in the oil sector would dry up.

Edited yesterday at 04:52 PM1 day by exchemist

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

This is not how markets work. Both crude oil and refined petroleum products are globally traded commodities. As such, buyers have to pay the price at which these commodities are traded, just as with gold, coffee or any other commodity.

Nice, simple, understandable explanation, @exchemist .
Now, do you want to explain why the price of gold, the other commodity you mentioned, is in free fall ?
( the fact that all commodities are tied to the US Dollar )

3 minutes ago, MigL said:

Nice, simple, understandable explanation, @exchemist .
Now, do you want to explain why the price of gold, the other commodity you mentioned, is in free fall ?
( the fact that all commodities are tied to the US Dollar )

Ha! No, though I noted the other day with interest that this seemingly paradoxical effect does seem to have been occurring. The article I read seemed to be saying it was to do with the likelihood of higher inflation, but I could not follow why that would make gold less attractive as a safe haven. But I understand the dollar was strengthening (possibly because European and Asian markets will be hit harder by the Gulf closure than the US?) so I suppose that would tend to make gold cheaper in dollar terms. But it's not my field so I'm guessing really.

The oil industry on the other hand I know a little about, though I was never a trader (I worked in the lubricants division). In fact a lot of refining nowadays takes place in the Persian Gulf. The Gulf States have been moving downstream into the product business for years, to capture more of the value chain. So there is an immediate shortage of refined products too, especially heavier fractions like kerosene for jet fuel, as Middle East crudes tend to be quite heavy. I gather the price of aviation kerosene has doubled. Again, this is not "profiteering"; there is already a serious shortage, such that airlines are wondering if they will be able to maintain a full service. Also fuel is ~30% of an airline's operating costs, so airlines will be in trouble unless they pass the costs on. I expect a similar shortage effect may play out for diesel, which will have a significant effect on road transport costs and thus on consumer prices. Gasoline will probably not be affected quite as severely, though still significantly of course.

And for some reason Americans go apeshit when the price of that goes up, even a little, hence the Iranian strategy.

I also recently read where Qatar has shut down its LNG production plant because of the war.
This plant supplies one third of the world's liquid Helium, and there is now a shortage of liquid Helium used for such things as MRI diagnostic machines.

It's amazing how many things were not taken into consideration before D Trump was pulled into this war by B Netanyahu.
If its not V Putin pulling on his puppet strings, it's another war criminal ...

53 minutes ago, MigL said:

I also recently read where Qatar has shut down its LNG production plant because of the war.
This plant supplies one third of the world's liquid Helium, and there is now a shortage of liquid Helium used for such things as MRI diagnostic machines.

It's amazing how many things were not taken into consideration before D Trump was pulled into this war by B Netanyahu.
If its not V Putin pulling on his puppet strings, it's another war criminal ...

Indeed. The tech bros won’t be happy about the helium, as it is needed for integrated circuit chip manufacture.

More seriously, raw materials for fertiliser are held up too. Urea, sulphur and sulphuric acid (used to digest phosphate minerals for phosphate fertilisers). This will have a big impact on food production in Africa and Asia.

(I see my earlier remarks about diesel are in line with what the CEO of Shell had to say today.)

By the way, for Shell too, lubricants production will be impacted. A lot of both diesel and lubricants base oil these days comes from their Gas to Liquids synthesis plant in…….Qatar!

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by exchemist

The Iranians have access to a hell of a atemi point in the Strait of Hormuz. Nice to see the shoe on the other foot. We are a bunch of twats, and we were due a kick in the collective nuts.

Edited 16 minutes ago16 min by StringJunky