2024 Election

[bpj]

As far as the economy goes, I think its the people on the lower income side that are affected most, but everybody has less disposable income than they would if prices were lower still, obviously.

Homeowners have been positively impacted for the most part, especially if they sell, because not much has outpaced inflation more than real estate.

But then they're presented with another problem. Finding another house and paying the going rate.

And when they do that, even they're going to notice that their new place costs twice as much per month.

The prices of everything else have risen also, food costs are even way up.

It's the lower income people Democrats claim to care about that are having a hard time. Unless they're on government handouts. Then, of course they're fine.

Any guesses what happens if 20 million illegals get deported? That mortgage on the expensive new house won't look so great all of a sudden with millions of homes now empty.

We've all watched the last few years as Blackstone and other corps have gobbled up every house to hit Zillow within days. Then, they rent them out through these government programs housing illegals for 2-3x the going rent rate.

Wonder what happens when that comes tumbling down..

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

like oil prices

Oil skyrocketed because Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline and forced America to depend on foreign countries for oil. You know, countries like Russia, Iraq, Saudi.....the countries that are our best friends.

I am still wondering why Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline and outlawed fracking, but supported Russia to finish their pipeline.
Comments?

[gil]

like oil prices

Oil skyrocketed because Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline and forced America to depend on foreign countries for oil. You know, countries like Russia, Iraq, Saudi.....the countries that are our best friends.

I am still wondering why Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline and outlawed fracking, but supported Russia to finish their pipeline.
Comments?

No I think there are some facts wrong here.

We're talking the Keystone XL pipeline right? (There are several other Keystone pipelines that are operational.) Even with Trump's approval, only 8% of Keystone XL was ever built (lots of lawsuits) and the project was abandoned several months after Biden revoked the permit. (My speculation is that the company no longer saw it as a profitable venture. The market had spoken.)

In other words, Biden revoking the permit didn't affect a drop of oil.

Second, the US has been a net petroleum EXPORTER in the past few years.

Third, we are producing more petroleum than any other country in the world. And more than any other country ever has.

Biden "outlawed" fracking? What specifically do you mean? With our record oil production, moist new wells are using fracking.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

Although you are correct, there are different types and levels of crude oil.


NBC News is reporting that the U.S. intends to ban imports of Russian oil today. That has caused another jump in already surging oil prices, but for many Americans the most surprising thing about this is that America imports Russian oil at all, let alone so much that it accounts for around eight percent of total U.S. oil usage. I mean, haven’t we been told repeatedly over the last five years or so how great it is that the U.S. has become energy independent?

Well, yes, we have. But that statement, while true in some ways, covers up several decades of short-sighted energy policies.

The U.S does indeed produce enough oil to meet its own needs. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2020 America produced 18.4 million barrels of oil per day and consumed 18.12 million. And yet that same report reveals that the U.S. imported 7.86 million barrels of oil per day last year.

That happens because of a combination of economics and chemistry. The economics are simple: overseas oil, even after shipping costs, is often cheaper than domestically-produced crude. That is because what oil people call "lifting costs," the cost of actually getting the oil out of the ground, are so much lower in some other countries. That, in turn, is down to a number of factors. Environmental and other regulations here play a part in that cost differential of course, but, contrary to what some would have you believe, they are far from the be-all and end-all in affecting prices.

Land and lease prices are a big factor, as are labor and other costs. Then there is the fact that so many countries, and Russia is definitely one of them, that see oil exports as an important strategic and geopolitical tool. In those cases, these nations give concessions to ensure that their oil is sold at an advantageous price. Right now, Vladimir Putin is being accused of weaponizing energy supply, but it is something that he and other dictators and human rights abusers have been doing for years to make client nations, including the U.S., ignore who they are and what they do.

Still, the U.S. probably wouldn’t be one of those client nations at all if it weren’t for the chemistry.

You see, the U.S. does produce enough oil to meet its own needs, but it is the wrong type of oil.

Crude is graded according to two main metrics, weight and sweetness. The weight of oil defines how easy it is to refine, or break down into its usable component parts, such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Light crude is the easiest to handle, heavy is the most difficult, with intermediate obviously somewhere in between. The sweetness refers to the sulfur content of unrefined oil. The sweeter it is, the less sulfur it contains.

Most of the oil produced in the U.S. fields in Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere is light and sweet, compared to what comes from the Middle East and Russia. The problem is that for many years, imported oil met most of the U.S.’s energy needs, so a large percentage of the refining capacity here is geared towards dealing with oil that is heavier and less sweet than the kind produced here.

A coordinated, forward-looking energy policy over the last few decades would have targeted that issue through subsidies and incentives. That money has been paid out anyway: it wouldn’t have been hard to use it to make America truly energy independent. However, politicians, it seems, would rather keep a situation where periodic energy crises give them a cudgel with which to beat an incumbent. Lest you think I am making a partisan point here, current criticism is of a Democrat by Republicans, but the last time crude was at these levels it was Democrats criticizing George W. Bush, a Republican, for policies and actions that they said forced oil higher back then.

So, we are left in a place where the U.S., despite producing more crude than it needs, is dependent on imports. When the country feels it must ban imports from Russia because of an unprovoked attack on an ally, it is forced to go cap in hand to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran to make up the difference. That is not the fault of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or any other individual politician. It is the fault of all of them and of every Congressperson and oil executive who prioritized a partisan lever over reducing America’s dependence on imported oil over the last thirty or forty years.


I do agree with this article, but I'd like to know how Biden shutting down the pipeline and not allowing contracts has affected the US oil market, thus making us dependent on foreign oil.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

What does Crude Oil produce......fuel only.

crudeoil.jpg (31.03 KiB) Viewed 173 times

And this doesn't take into account of how pure the oil is, so I'd guess it can vary.

[bpj]

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

A couple things that are funny.....

Walz tells California that he is for abolishing the Electoral College and selecting the President on popular vote alone.
-What a way to disenfranchise voters from smaller states.
-What a way of saying that only California and New York have a say in who is the President.


Harris was asked about changes between her and Biden if elected.
"Well I am not Joe Biden" is how she started.
Duh!!!
Then she went into a bunch of word salad about how she loves America.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

Thanks for posting that.

Now take into account that it (unfortunately) is a world economy, the reason the world has inflation, is because of us....no, no, no. It's because Biden spent too much with his Green New Deal.....sorry. I mean the Inflation Reduction Act.

[Walla Walla Dawg II]

Harris keeps claiming how she's going to change things, but when asked on "the view" what she would do differently she said "nothing comes to mind."

That answer alone tells you every thing you need to know about her.

[Donn Beach]

Thanks for posting that.

Now take into account that it (unfortunately) is a world economy, the reason the world has inflation, is because of us....no, no, no. It's because Biden spent too much with his Green New Deal.....sorry. I mean the Inflation Reduction Act.

You realize that after promising to reduce it, Trump actually ran the national debt up more than practically any other president in history. Seems silly to me to try and pin it on one particular party. It doesn't work that way

The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.