[fabsroman]

The one thing I don't understand, is why none of the large oil companies compete against one another on price? If there isn't enough supply because there aren't enough refineries, why can't somebody step in and build more refineries? Why isn't Chavez and Citgo undercutting the rest of the American oil companies?

Could the shortage issue be a result of OPEC, Chavez, and others rationing what they have? It is a limited resource, so I don't blame them for rationing.

Talk about price fixing, how about DeBeers. If there is ever price fixing, it has to be on diamonds. DeBeers and Russia are holding such a stock pile of diamonds that if they were released to the public the supply would far outweigh demand and the price would plunge.

I still cannot understand how the oil companies are making huge profits without some type of price fixing, or maybe they just know we will pay whatever for gas and they let the futures market figure everything out. It seems as though when the price for a future barrel of oil goes up, the next morning I see a price increase at the pump. We just hit a record high of $106 a barrel today, and that is traders trading in oil futures all over the world. Keep in mind that our weak dollar needs to compete with everybody else out there that wants oil.