[QUOTE=Cuervo;2371839]Increasing interest rate is usually put in place to slow the economy and slow down inflation.

Were the US oil companies selling it cheaper, or did they cash in to make record profits?
Pity the oil companies don't run the military industrial complex as well, instead of spending the profits on pay rises, bonuses, share dividends etc. all round.
Capitalism has its drawbacks.

Energy independence is a myth. We buy foreign oil because the oil we produce is not appropriate for some uses. Some refineries can’t operate on the light sweet oil we produce in the US, thus we import oil. We also export oil.

The thing is we are producing more oil today than ever before and there will be a slow progression to get away from fossil fuels. That will not be at the expense of being subservient to foreign oil, the target is to replace the fuel we consume with clean replenishable.

As far as these people who say we have to replace gas vehicles to save the planet are fools, what they should be saying is that we have an undeniable history of humans polluting our air, water and soil and we have to stop before this earth is uninhabitable.

As George Carlin pointed out when the earth is tired of us it will just shake us off like flees and the planet will be here long after we're gone.

///

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
-Sir Winston Churchill

He also said in 1947 “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.”

You remember him, no? He's one of yours.

The problem is that the US is not capitalist anymore. It is now corporatist. Big difference, but still better than the alternative.

Energy is the primary input cost to everything that is produced. There is nothing more important than cheap energy to the well-being of humanity. JD Rockefeller and Enrico Fermi should be worshipped (as well as Fritz Haber).

The USA buys heavy sour from Venezuela and Russia to mix with the light sweet shale oil in refineries that have not been modified for light sweet shale oil.

I saw Sir Winston when I was young, he was the MP for the area where my aunt lived.

And I remember Maggie Thatcher saying "Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money."

(often quoted as ‘the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money’)

All systems have their Achilles Heel.

Capitalism has its warts but no other financial system is better

With central banking you never run out of other peoples money....A money counterfeiter never goes broke.
Socialism fails when there is nothing left to steal. This is the lesson of the USSR/Weimar Germany...Hyperinflation.

Common sense would say use your own resources, produce and sell your own "stuff" including energy, grow your own economy, make your own economy healthy, and have strong education that teaches basic economics and love of country for future successful adults. Seems like independence, love of and investment in your own country with strong borders and a healthy economy based not on borrowing and printing fake $$ would be basic competence to build a successful country.

Don't have to wonder how we lost that competence and are a rapidly failing country - pride & greed. Heads so big a country thinks it's the world's savior and greed so powerful it squashes the human spirit. Everything once believed in freely handed over as a debt to the world. How about a strong country minding and tending to its own business, one that lifts up its own.

Pride comes before a fall and LOVE of $$ the root of all evil. How about the think tank says enough is enough. Let's go back to commen sense.

That is a VERY OLD point of view!!!! Look up the top happiest countries in the world. Socialist countries are at the top, USA is #23.

strong country minding and tending to its own business, one that lifts up its own!!! AMEN!

I don’t think they are happy in Cuba right now. Would be nice to just have some clean running water.
Many news articles about the Chinese people very unhappy. Venezuela same thing.
I guess you mean what we are being told here. You will own nothing and be happy.
I for one will stick with Capitalism over Socialism, any day of the week. After actually having visited many socialist countries over the years, socialist countries are pretty depressing.
Not to mention, in socialist countries, the 1% ruling class lives in splendor, while the 99% live in squalor. No thanks! I’d rather live & die a poor free man.

The Keystone Pipeline was built to EXPORT Oil...

How about we go back to water powered engines,G.H. Garrett, Stanley Myers. Just to name a few. Wireless electrical engines (ether). Nikola Tesla. The amazing technology that has been buried-literally. Research. Google is not your friend humans.

The top countries are not socialist...............the are or have moved away from socialism.

The Keystone Pipeline was built to transport Canadian oil to Illinois refineries. Look it up.

For the first two phases, yes. Then it was expanded to transport the oil to the Gulf of Mexico.

I looked it up in Wikipedia which pointed me to this article which includes:

The KXL Pipeline would have carried Canadian tar sands oil through Montana, nine South Dakota counties, and Nebraska before connecting to the existing Keystone Pipeline, which ends at the Gulf of Mexico.

and

Energy experts say most of the crude would have been processed at American refineries along the Gulf Coast. But there’s debate over whether most of the final product would have been sold in the U.S. or to overseas markets.

So it looks like the Canadian oil would have gone to refineries in the Gulf and likely would have been exported.

They are democratic socialist........

there is capitalism, corporatism, and socialism

there is autocracy and democracy

please don't confuse the -isms with the -ocracies. .

the suffix moderator. .

Brent Crude petroleum is at this moment selling for $74.49 per barrel. Not $130. $30 a barrel was an aberration, and when it occurred, President Trump sent an emissary to the Saudis to plead with them to pump out less petroleum so the price would go up because the U.S. was closing down wells because the price was too low. Had you forgotten that?

Here’s what was published in Forbes (a very conservative business source on July 1, 2024:
“Establishing Consistent Terminology
“It’s important to understand that the following two statements are each true under a consistent definition of energy independence.
“If the U.S. is not energy independent under Joe Biden, then it was never energy independent under Donald Trump.
“If the U.S. was energy independent under Donald Trump, then energy independence has grown to record levels under Joe Biden.
“ Under no scenario did the U.S. become energy independent under Trump and lose it under Biden.
“ I don’t find this definition very useful, due to the globalized nature of energy markets. The U.S. imports some energy to convert it into products for export. We began importing crude oil in the U.S. before 1950, and we have imported it every year since.
“ Under this definition, the U.S. hasn’t been energy independent in at least 75 years. This definition highlights how interdependent global energy supplies are, emphasizing that this sort of energy independence is neither necessary nor economically desirable.
“ Thus, the notion, “President Trump made us energy independent”, is not true under the Zero Imports Definition. During President Trump’s term, the U.S. imported an average of 9.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and finished products. By the Zero Imports Definition, Statement 1 above holds: We weren’t energy independent under Trump or Biden.
The Energy Surplus Definition is more useful in my view. That defines energy independence as producing more energy than we consume. Based on that definition, even if we import some energy, the fact that we produce more than enough to satisfy our needs would mean the U.S. is energy independent.

“The Energy Surplus Definition is what Trump is using when he said we became energy independent while he was in office. If we consider this definition, in 2019 the U.S. had an energy surplus for the first time since at least the 1940s. This can be seen in the following graphic when the production line barely exceeds the consumption line for the first time in 2019.
“ The Energy Surplus Definition is more useful in my view. That defines energy independence as producing more energy than we consume. Based on that definition, even if we import some energy, the fact that we produce more than enough to satisfy our needs would mean the U.S. is energy independent.
“ Net U.S. energy imports hit a record high in 2005, but since then have steadily declined due to the surge of oil and gas production released by the shale boom. In 2019, net U.S. energy imports became net exports, and that is the measure by which many — including Donald Trump — declared energy independence.
“However, we didn’t lose this status under Joe Biden. To the contrary, U.S. oil and gas production continued to grow, as shown in the next graphic. In 2022 the net energy surplus reached 5.94 quadrillion BTUs (quads), which was the highest level in at least 70 years.”

Don’t imagine that Energy Independence means we don’t bring in petroleum from elsewhere. What happens is a bit like this: we have LOTS of M&Ms, but we have more brown ones than we need and not enough red and yellow ones, so we import red and yellow ones and export brown ones. What happened under both Trump and Biden (though neither should be taking the credit, as it doesn’t have much to do with them) is that the U.S. is exporting more M&Ms than it is importing.

If you want to know the truth, don’t turn to campaign ads from either side.
U.S. Energy Independence Set New Record In 2023

Yep, quite different than LL's statement of "Socialist countries are at the top".

:mornincoffee:

I agree to a point, but to maintain a Socialist country the citizens of that country have to keep a watchful eye. You see Socialism and Dictatorship are not that far apart. Sweden which many people look at as a Socialist country is a combination of Socialism and Capitalism. On the other hand, China and Cuba are considered complete Socialist.
The question is what type of government you want to live under the Swedish or the U.S. and no matter which you have to participate to make sure your freedom stays in place.

Our current financial system allows us to use printed money to buy foreign oil.
BRICS is leading the way to trade tangible goods and take power away from financial manipulators.
Our manufacturing was moved out of the country and the dollar will no longer be the reserve currency.
Our financial system is coming to an end and we will be forced to join the BRICS system.

What are these "Socialist" countries that are so happy?

Methinks they are not actually socialist, at all...

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That is a good post! Americans live under the illusion that we are the best at EVERYTHING. So we do NOT try to learn anything from other counties. Just as an example, the US is the only major country that does NOT have socialized medicine. Actually, the V. A. could be expanded to include all people and that would give us National Healthcare like ALL the other major countries. Medical insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are set up to make EXCESSIVE profits.
......The bottom line is that we should look at other countries and be willing to LEARN from them.

Instead of picking the WORST of socialistic countries which have a multitude of problems that can't be solved by ANY type of government. Instead, look to Sweden and Finland for the benefits of socialism. The problem is that in the US, the word socialism has taken on such a negative meaning. It becomes connected with communism, which then equates to enemies that the US has fought wars with.

I prefer the term Dictatorship to autocracy. Autocracy sounds too tame. Not frightening enough like Dictatorship.

Mostly
 

Lady Randolph Churchill - Wikipedia.

So what happened with England when the govt owned much of the economy.

Not so good and as a result the govt made the economy capitalistic again

Not Socialism countries.

Funny how oil companies make more money when crud oil sky high. Now who what causes oil to go sky high? Oil companies like it when crud oil goes way up. They make more money on gallon of gas than federal state governments.

As far as George Carlin he had no idea like rest of us. He just made money off jokes like all comedians.

I sure the majority of population happy with gun to here heads :a040:

Please see post #21

Yep, free lunches.

Neither of those countries are "socialist"...

They are also at the top of the list for the consumption of "anti-depressants"...

what country consumes highest amount of antidepressants - Google Search

Here is our list of the 20 countries with most antidepressant users in the world.
Norway. ...
Finland. ...
Italy. ...
Sweden. ...
Austria. Annual Sales Per Capita (2020): $9.70. ...
Luxembourg. Annual Sales Per Capita (2021): $9.70. ...
Germany. Annual Sales Per Capita (2020): $9.80. ...
Ireland. Annual Sales Per Capita (2020): $10.90.

Maybe that is why they are so "happy"...

"Exxon's “downstream” earnings — the money it makes selling gasoline and other refined petroleum products — run about 7 or 8 cents a gallon"...

how much do oil companies make on a gallon of gas - Google Search

Government taxes are 3-5 Xs that amount...

Gas Taxes and What You Need to Know

USSR. A dictatorship that was socialist in name only. We called them "commies" (communists), but communism and socialism are not the same thing.