this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Good lord that isn't how commodity prices work. There's no cabal with complete control over global oil and gas prices. There are groups with varied interests depending on the amount and quality of oil they possess, but even that gets complicated. It boils down to what is on the market and how it's bought and sold on contracts by global energy traders. Yes, OPEC and Saudi Arabia have some power over prices by increasing and decreasing supply on the market, but that's been reduced with how much supply has come online over the years in the US and Canada. Russian supply cuts to Europe had a pretty obvious ripple effect, but after a year or so, supplies and relative demand have shifted. This reductionist take is so tiring and is such an obvious sign of lack of understanding how commodities markets, and quite likely economies themselves, actually work in the real world. It sounds almost as crazy as the right wing conspiracies about global cabals.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Companies are driven by humans. And humans do greed very well. And our system is excellent at lifting up the greediest ones to the positions of power that could maybe not form the cabal. But do the 'human see other earn more, human do' thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Very fair take on moral philosophy, but what does that actyally have to do with how commodity prices work??

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

That we humans have made up money, and the market. That the notion of the 'invisible hand of the market' being an unbiased force, is actually a bunch of humans who have their vices and virtues move that hand. We have a system that tends to raise people up that are more greedy. Those that justify the existence of 'catch-up profits' to correct lost margins.

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