"JohnH" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:53:50 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

The oil companies,
knowing
this, do whatever they want with the price. That's a crime, and should
be
dealt with.

I asked the questions I did because of the statement you made, above. You
state the oil companies are committing a crime and make the solution to
high prices sound very simple.

I don't think it is.
John

Although Supreme Court justices use hypothetical questions as a tool ***ALL
THE TIME*** in their sessions with attorneys, I'm aware of the fact that
here in this NG, lesser minds like to apply the term "straw man" (an
inaccurate term), because they need to belittle a process they cannot
fathom. (Dave Hall was the queen of that group). Let's try a hypothetical
question anyway, though, and hope no mental midgets show up and clutter
things.

(You've just been flattered. You're welcome.)

Let's say I had more money than Bill Gates. I see in the newspaper that the
entire crew of a Norwegian ***OIL TANKER*** was found to have Legionnaire's
disease. Not only that, but the ship's owner makes a habit of moving a
portion of each crew from one ship to another whenever possible, so that
they're exposed to any operational differences between the ships. They own
10 ships. Not knowing (or caring) whether Legionnaire's disease is
contagious, I decide that ALL the company's ships are at risk, which may
have an enormous impact on the availability of oil. I place a huge futures
trade, of a size that rivals those of institutional traders, and of course,
it's noticed, as such trades always are. Sometimes, lots of sheep mimic such
trades, because without checking the source, they think there must be
SOMETHING going on. Is it just some yahoo playing with extra money, or were
Saudi oil fields attacked within the last few hours? Who cares? More people
jump in.

Although large institutional traders are sometimes asked why things go a
certain way, nobody interviews me because I'm just some yahoo with a bunch
of money, and I don't have to reveal my identity to anyone but my broker, or
whatever web site I trade through. Later that day, you hear on the news "Oil
jumped $2.15 a barrel today". Absolutely nothing else in the world happened
which would cause this. Even the "professionals" are clueless, and can't pin
it on news events of any sort.

This is not as hypothetical as you will probably want to say it is. What do
you think about this scenario?