Are Oil Prices A Form of Terrorism?

I admit, I don't know a lot when it comes to the middle east, oil and the market in general. However, this question keeps popping into my mind.

To me, the average citizen, it seems that the majority of oil comes from the Middle East. That Dubai & China have a lot of money to spend on whatever they want and the US is in a depression that we can't seem to get out of. Everytime it looks like we're taking a step forward, oil companies raise the price and we end up 4 steps back trying to recover from another massive hike.

So, am I wrong to think that oil companies are using price manipulation as a form of terrorism to bring the Western World, more specifically the United States, to it's knees or is this just good 'ole boy money makin' greed at it's best?

I'd love to hear the ideas of others on this. Educate me if you will.

It's not terrorism if it doesn't terrorize...price-gouging, even if it was happening, would piss people off but it's not terrorism.

And for the record, the top countries we import oil from are Mexico and Canada.

It's greed. Something the world is built on it seems.

Umm it's neither. It's supply and demand. People demand more oil now, because they aren't sure that they'll be able to get it later due to the instability in the Middle East. That raises the price. It has nothing to do with greed, because oil companies and petrostates are incapable of raising the price beyond what the market will bear.

And it's certainly not terrorism. Just because (some) of the people selling it are Arabs, and you resent paying high prices, doesn't mean that it's terrorism. That's racist as hell. If you don't think that oil is worth the price that it currently sells for, then don't use so much of it.

Kandahar said:

Umm it's neither. It's supply and demand. People demand more oil now, because they aren't sure that they'll be able to get it later due to the instability in the Middle East. That raises the price. It has nothing to do with greed, because oil companies and petrostates are incapable of raising the price beyond what the market will bear.

And it's certainly not terrorism. Just because (some) of the people selling it are Arabs, and you resent paying high prices, doesn't mean that it's terrorism. That's racist as hell. If you don't think that oil is worth the price that it currently sells for, then don't use so much of it.

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It doesnt help that oil is also a speculative market either, I think that if the nation started drilling like crazy for oil the price could change based on the notion that the US is drilling, but Im guessing.

chevydriver1123 said:

It doesnt help that oil is also a speculative market either, I think that if the nation started drilling like crazy for oil the price could change based on the notion that the US is drilling, but Im guessing.

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Not to be a contrarian, but I'd have to debate that because in general if the US went and started drilling prices would come down in the short term, but over the long-term, things would still be the same.

Mr. Invisible said:

Not to be a contrarian, but I'd have to debate that because in general if the US went and started drilling prices would come down in the short term, but over the long-term, things would still be the same.

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Actually, if we drilled right here, right now, it would probably be a decade before it would have a noticeable effect on prices.