I think we have finally reached the end stage of the empire

    • discountsocialism [none/use name]
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      edit-2
      3 years ago

      We're in an energy crisis because we stopped buying oil and gas from the second largest oil exporting country in the world. I think putting the blame on speculators is propaganda to redirect the blame away from the war. I think it is more likely that Europe is importing oil and gas like crazy due to the supply shock than a global conspiracy by oil companies to artificially inflate the price of oil. Prices will go down when the war ends and we buy russian fuel again (or tap a ton of wells) but the EU pledges to cut off russian oil by 2027 so I think we're in it for the long run.

        • Mrtryfe [none/use name]
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          3 years ago

          Any reading on this? Not saying I don't believe you, but I am very interested in the topic

        • discountsocialism [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Oil prices are based on global demand. Since the start of the conflict, week over week the US has been consistently selling more domestic oil to Europe and they are willing to pay more for it than we are.

          But yeah, speculators caused the prices to rapidly increase but we already saw the effect of this. If we beheaded all the speculators today, it wouldn't cause oil prices to substantially decrease because European demand is rapidly increasing.

          One solution is banning oil exports and then we would have cheap gas again but Europe would get crushed and they would go into an economic depression.

      • yellowparenti5 [none/use name]
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        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Factually speaking, gasoline producers are making all time high profits https://fortune.com/2022/05/05/oil-companies-massive-profits-first-quarter-russia-ukraine/
        Those taking losses from withdrawl from Russia are taking big one-time hits