[Marxism] Supply and demand?

[S. Artesian]

Thank you for acknowledging your error in attributing "speculative demand 
causing price rises" to me.

As for offsets-- the US EIA, which relies in the IEA international figures 
also reports that daily production has exceeded daily consumption-- and 
whether US demand offsets all of China's increases or not, the bottom line 
is that production has increased as consumption has increased and has 
exceeded daily consumption.

As for the rest:have "replaced" the prose it; numerous times, examing price 
increases and rates of return for the industry.  Gave the number on rates of 
return before-- gave a link to the blog which discusses rates of return. 
That's not purple prose-- look at the rates of return for the industry vs. 
oil prices since 1994; look at rates of return after 1973; after 1979; then 
look at rates of return during the dog days leading to the run up to Gulf 
War 1, prices touching $40 barrel and then dropping again so that the ROI 
fell back into single digits.

This is exactly what the pricing mechanism is supposed to do.  Think this is 
clearly stated in Vol 3 of  Capital, or in Engels' introduction to Vol 3 (I 
forget which, will go back and check).

As for purple prose:  do you have any evidence for your assertion that gold 
mining has lagged demand?  Maybe it has, but what are the production numbers 
and how much is being sold?  Is there data for this beyond anecdotes?

Do you honestly think that a 2% growth in consumption, which has been 
matched by supplies and production every year is the reason oil prices 
doubled in 6 months?  Supply and demand explains absolutely nothing about 
the function the price inflation of oil performs.

Where do the state-owned firms of Venezuela, Iran fit in this?  Exactly 
where OPEC has fit in for years-- garnering profits and recycling those 
profits through domestic and world markets, using some for day to day 
operations, doing whatever it takes to maximize profit. Venezuela has had 
the policy of "sowing the oil" in one form or another for 80 years.  What's 
different about Chavez? Not just that he has actually achieved government 
control of revenues, he has actually used a portion to "seed" social 
progress.  All that being said, the Venezuelan banks have been doing just 
fine with their portion of the largesse, as have car dealerships, etc.

But the bottom line is:  OPEC acts as the agent of the bourgeoisie, doing 
its bidding.  Even the OPEC 1973 embargo after the Sinai War suited the 
bourgeoisie to the max.  Again from memory, I think one of the top Saudi oil 
representatives stated, looking back on it, he realized that he had actually 
served the interests of capitalism, and US capital in particular.

If OPEC didn't exist, the bourgeoisie would have invented it.

Forgive me if I do not comment on EIA's projections for year 2030.  I avoid 
speculation like the plague.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marvin Gandall" <marvgandall at videotron.ca>
To: <sartesian at earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Supply and demand?