Market

Pony Soup · Post by **Pony Soup** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:11 pm

interesting opinion, but pretty shallow. To say one country was our supplier and a change there singlehandedly drove prices is just wrong. All OPEC countries cheat the system every year, this is well documented. But whatever, I kind of like the high energy prices - it's money in the bank. Now if we could just get the ponies a coach and start winning...

Ponymon · Post by **Ponymon** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:48 pm

firephil wrote:interesting opinion, but pretty shallow. To say one country was our supplier and a change there singlehandedly drove prices is just wrong. All OPEC countries cheat the system every year, this is well documented. But whatever, I kind of like the high energy prices - it's money in the bank. Now if we could just get the ponies a coach and start winning...

Yes they all cheat, but they don't have the resources of that country, which is why it was such a big deal. Glad you like the high prices and you should really like them if it hits what some traders believe it will in the near future - $109 to $150/barrel!

Pony Soup · Post by **Pony Soup** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:59 pm

You can thank our buddy Ben Bernacke for the recent run up - got to LOVE that weak USD. LOVE IT!!! No, seriously, cut rates again...it might help this time around...

Ponymon · Post by **Ponymon** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:38 pm

firephil wrote:You can thank our buddy Ben Bernacke for the recent run up - got to LOVE that weak USD. LOVE IT!!! No, seriously, cut rates again...it might help this time around...

You can actually thank your friend, Alan Greenspan, for the current inflation. It was caused by his dumping way too much money into the money supply after Y2K and 9-11. Bernie is trying to figure out a way to clean up the mess without killing the economy. He made a mistake when he raised the fed funds rate all the way up to 5.25% causing the yield curve to invert and making it difficult to refinance all those lousy mortgages that were put on when the rate was 1% with no money down financing. (He should have stopped at 4.25% or 4.50% to keep from inverting the curve, but at least he didn't go to 6%, which would have been a real disaster.) Bill Gross, probably the most successful bond manager of the last decade, thinks that the fed funds rate will have to drop to 3.25% to keep the economy going. Obviously, we will have to accept some level of inflation to get past this problem. Otherwise expect a big recession, which will make things even worse!