World Bank + Gas?

[orbsycli]

O hypographites, I bringeth two questions.

-How does the world bank interact with governments?

-WHAT or WHO decides how much gas costs in America?

I heard that in some countries gasoline is still only a few dimes a gallon.
Is it because they produce their own gas? Or are they not a part of a world bank? Or what?

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

-How does the world bank interact with governments?

Rich countries lend money and get interest. The bank finds "worthy" economic and humanitarian government sponsored programs in poor countries and lends the money to them.

SO its just like a regular bank, but what gets lent and to whom is subject to heavy political pressure (e.g. Wolfie making sure that no birth control programs got loans).

Originally Posted by orbsycli

-WHAT or WHO decides how much gas costs in America?

Three key components:

• Commodities markets trade crude oil. This sets the prices that buyers (really the oil companies) have to pay. The producers can form cartels (like OPEC) to agree to *production* targets, and if the commodities markets decide that they think there's going to be more demand than these targets, the price will go up.
• Government tax/subsidy policy. In most of Europe and in lots of other places in the world, taxes can account for more than half of what you pay at the pump: this is both a way to raise revenues and a way to control the impacts of oil price shocks by suppressing demand and having flexibility to adjust taxes downward if necessary to avoid recessionary pressures. Some governments use their funds to *subsidize* oil, like in Venezuela and Iran and *some* other oil producing countries because they make so much money off of selling the oil and it keeps their restive populations happy.
• Gas prices at the pump are generally competition between the oil companies that refine the gas. Because the US government has allowed so much consolidation in production--there are really only 4-5 refining companies left in the US--these companies do not have to explicitly collude in order to engage in "coopetition" in the market that means that the prices they charge to dealers is more of a political consideration than anything else. There is little or no competitive pressure, so you end up with situations like now where the price of oil has been steady at about $60/bbl for six months, but the average price of gas in the US has gone from $2 to $3/gal.

This is really great for the oil companies and since they're friends of Dick Cheney's its good for the country by definition, because people who complain about this are all terrorist-loving traitors.

Originally Posted by orbsycli

Or are they not a part of a world bank? Or what?

So, these two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other, other than the fact that they provide places for the rich folks to have outrageously high paying jobs where they can hire their mistresses....

How much of the CEO's private jet does it take to fill your tank,
Buffy

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Buffy

Because the US government has allowed so much consolidation in production--there are really only 4-5 refining companies left in the US--these companies do not have to explicitly collude in order to engage in "coopetition" in the market that means that the prices they charge to dealers is more of a political consideration than anything else. There is little or no competitive pressure, so you end up with situations like now where the price of oil has been steady at about $60/bbl for six months, but the average price of gas in the US has gone from $2 to $3/gal.

I still do not understand this process completely. If no competition ("coopetition"?) exists, then the gallon/liter price is skewed in favor of the refining companies' supply-demand curves, yeah? Why not raise the roof and try to shift the bell curve? (oh wait, that's already happening)

This is really great for the oil companies and since they're friends of Dick Cheney's its good for the country by definition, because people who complain about this are all terrorist-loving traitors.
So, these two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other, other than the fact that they provide places for the rich folks to have outrageously high paying jobs where they can hire their mistresses....

The ubiquitous cynicism is both amusing and easy to relate with.

How much of the CEO's private jet does it take to fill your tank

According to the Cessna website, their Citation X plane cruises at a minimum of 1626 lbs of fuel per hour. I fill up my gas tank about every 2 weeks (16.9 gallons). Based upon these numbers my total consumption of fuel (for my car) is 0.050298gal/hr. This equates to 0.301788 lbs of fuel/hr (assuming 6 pounds per gallon).

So, in comparison, my car uses 1.845018e-4 the amount of gas than a Cessna Citation X travelling at 493 mph at an elevation of 47,000 ft and a weight of 28,000 lbs.
Welcome to the Cessna Citation X

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by freeztar

I still do not understand this process completely. If no competition ("coopetition"?) exists, then the gallon/liter price is skewed in favor of the refining companies' supply-demand curves, yeah? Why not raise the roof and try to shift the bell curve?

The one counterveiling influence is that if this activity can't be "reasonably" tied to other market pressures, it becomes easy for Congress to pin their re-election strategies on punishing the evil greedy oil companies with "excess profits" taxes.

So they have to at least be able to point to "volitile oil markets" and "uncertainty in Iran and Iraq" and "that crazy Chavez". Unfortunately the graphs of prices over the last six months don't match the other markets, so I'm betting after the next quarterly profit figures are announced that there will be quite an uproar here in the states...

Originally Posted by freeztar

(oh wait, that's already happening)

And there you have it!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition,
Buffy

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by freeztar

According to the Cessna website, their Citation X plane cruises at a minimum of 1626 lbs of fuel per hour. I fill up my gas tank about every 2 weeks (16.9 gallons). Based upon these numbers my total consumption of fuel (for my car) is 0.050298gal/hr. This equates to 0.301788 lbs of fuel/hr (assuming 6 pounds per gallon).

So, in comparison, my car uses 1.845018e-4 the amount of gas than a Cessna Citation X travelling at 493 mph at an elevation of 47,000 ft and a weight of 28,000 lbs.

Do you keep your car cruising 24 hours a day? Also a fairer comparison would be fuel to travel a given long distance carrying a similar payload. Plane probably uses somewhat more, against the time and safety advantage; rail is safe but still slow.