suburban prices for gas (Chicago, St. Charles: buyers, costs, shop)

[Chicago native]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

Isn't the whole idea of having a market economy that we let the, you know, market set prices. When you have multiple suppliers, its really very, very difficult to get true collusion to fix prices. Why is gasoline different from any other commodity (corn, wheat, copper, steel)? Other than the obvious difference which is that consumers complain to the politicians about the price of gas and not of the others.

Right. Price-fixing is a conspiracy among multiple sellers to keep prices of the same item from being set below a certain level. But as long as sellers are free to try to undersell one another, there's no conspiracy and therefore no price-fixing. If Dunkin' Donuts observes that Krispy Kreme is charging .10 more per dozen, there is no law that says Dunkin' Donuts can't raise its prices if it wants to.

It is true that gasoline sellers operate under some unique laws, but they're not violating some kind of universal principle of free markets when they break those laws. They're just breaking the special laws about gasoline that lawmakers put in place because of the special role gasoline plays in the lives of consumers and (probably more importantly, from the politicians' point of view) in the functioning of most businesses.

[sammy22]

Arabian is not a race. And yes, you are racist, by painting a picture using some racist stereotype you have in your head. I never knew that someone else accused you of being racist earlier, but I understand why.

[chet everett]

Might do some good to read up a bit on what really is meant by "price fixing":

Illinois Attorney General - Protecting Consumers - Gas Prices (http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/gas_prices.html#the_law - broken link)

Sherman Antitrust Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Price fixing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Might do some good to read up a bit on what really is meant by "price fixing":

Illinois Attorney General - Protecting Consumers - Gas Prices (http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/gas_prices.html#the_law - broken link)

Sherman Antitrust Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Price fixing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So it looks like no laws were broken. The market usually works pretty well, even when we don't like the results.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by sammy22

Arabian is not a race. And yes, you are racist, by painting a picture using some racist stereotype you have in your head. I never knew that someone else accused you of being racist earlier, but I understand why.

This has got to be the most rediculos IDIOTIC thing I have ever heard. So if I would have said, the WHITE guy came out of Thorntons and raised his prices or better since I didn't see him do that since their sign is electronic, that would be ok, but the fact that I labeled someone as being Arabian of which he was (oh wait excuse me... Middle eastern) is not ok? Did I say all middle easterners are bad? No, I said an arabian man came out of his station to change his sign, which he did right after the Thorntons sign changed. You're right that just labeled all the arabs as being aweful. LOL! Get a life!

[sgresident]

gas in our area as of 6:30 p.m. was $3.67. the next town over was $3.75 and I don't care what the guy looks like that changes the sign. It is still crazy!

[Avengerfire]

Why is it crazy? This stuff has been going on for almost 7 years. Adapt or be left behind.

[trailerguy]

Most gas stations now make all their profit off the convenience store items. Fuel sales barely break even. The profit is way above their level. Producing countries get about $20-30 a barrel, noways near what the market is bearing. Most of the profit is being made in the middle by speculators buying futures in the commodities. They contribute nothing to the process (unlike producers and retailers) but get most of the money. Fuel is going up now because real estate is sinking to almost reasonable levels and the speculators are getting out. So they're doing their stealing elsewhere.

[chet everett]

The type of investors and firms that speculate in crude oil futures are considerably different than those that speculate in the gasoline futures and both are very very different than those that were active in the real estate speculation market through mortgage backed securities.

Commodities - Latest Trading Prices and Data from CNNMoney

NYMEX Sets Daily Volume Records for RBOB Gasoline Futures on CME Globex(R): PRNewswire Business News: NMX - MSN Money (http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=PR&Date=20080305&ID=8285262&Symb ol=NMX - broken link)

Light Crude Oil (CL, NYMEX): Weekly Price Chart

[prairiestate]

Originally Posted by NYrules

This has got to be the most rediculos IDIOTIC thing I have ever heard. So if I would have said, the WHITE guy came out of Thorntons and raised his prices or better since I didn't see him do that since their sign is electronic, that would be ok, but the fact that I labeled someone as being Arabian of which he was (oh wait excuse me... Middle eastern) is not ok? Did I say all middle easterners are bad? No, I said an arabian man came out of his station to change his sign, which he did right after the Thorntons sign changed. You're right that just labeled all the arabs as being aweful. LOL! Get a life!

The fact is, you WOULDN'T have mentioned if the guy was white. The fact that you feel the need to attach a label to someone, for no reason, who is not white could certainly be construed as racist.