I’ve heard it plenty of time on the radio, “Due to fears of firefly outbreaks and instability in Belgium, the price of oil has gone up 20%”. So of course the increase is passed on to the consumer and our gas prices go up. But then the fireflies wait another year to attack and Belgium stays stable.
Yet I never see a huge dip in consumer prices. Is someone in the commodities market taking a huge loss on these unmet fears? Does the consumer ever get their money back? Or do we just end up paying for some commodities broker freaking out?
I think I’m right that there would be as many losers in the commodity futures as there are winner? And it’s not just “some commodities borker freaking out.” It’s actually driven by supply and demand, although the futures markets can run in front of actual demand. But you can safely say that the high price of diesel fuel in the US is pretty much because there’s a huge demand for it worldwide. And, since the US dollar is at a low against most other currencies, it appears to those of us in the US that diesel has skyrocketedl, just as we think that gold is rediculously high at $875/US today. But, if you’re in a European country, you don’t think gold has skyrocketed quite as much, and people who are buying diesel in Switzerland think it’s still a bargain because they are buying diesel with a Swiss Fracn that is now worth $1/US.
Tell that to us Brits, who saw Gordon Brown sell off half our gold at about a quarter of current prices a few years ago.