Oil prices.... conspiracy anyone???

An article from today's The Star "Fax Error Sends RM22bil Fraud Mastermind to Jail caught my eye. Why? Because this guy appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List after earning 4.15 million pounds in just 5 years. And his wealth acquistion method? Deceit and lies. At the age of 39, Virendra Rastogi and father of 2, managed to trick respectable people into investing in his metal trading firm. He supposedly ran 324 client companies which traded with the US, UAE, HK and Singapore for 6 years. But when investigators did their homework, the sham came to light. Their leads took them to a cowshed in India, a launderette in New Jersey and the home of an elderly couple who sold scrapbooks. And these were supposed to be million dollar establishments.

Interesting?? I thought it was cos it made me think about our present 'oil crisis.' Here you have a man, who have managed to dupe so many into giving him money... supposedly for valid investments. In part I think globalisation and advancement in communication technology probably play a very big part in his huge 'success' here. Your victims can come from all over the globe! Otherwise, you can only scam in smaller amounts....like the RM100 million Johor case. This one didn't go global, so the amount was not so dramatic!

Was reading Idris Jala's comment on oil. He says production cost of a barrel should be around US$30 per barrel. Yet prices are now hovering close to US$130. News of the slightest unrest, be it environmental or man made, would send prices heading northwards like crazy. Some people say it will hit US$150 by year end. So where does all the extra profit go? Why is it that companies have not started mass producing cars using alternative fuels. Was just watching on Discovery this new concept car called Hyper Car which can run 93 miles per gallon. Clean technology! And this technology was developed back in the 80s. The beauty of this car is the extra energy can be put back into the energy grid. Yet no real effort has been made to produce such cars in earnest. Lots of people in the oil industry or related industries will be out of jobs if this car takes off.

You've got to wonder...whether there is any greater conspiracy to keep the prices of oil up? Or whether there is any country, cartel, groups which are raking in the huge profits now? The world we live in today is so connected that it is so easy to spread information and misinformation. And we also have those futures and commodities traders...people who buy into the future. I do not understand the mechanism completely but I should think that it should be quite possible to manipulate the world market. By the way, crude oil for July delivery was at US$139.12 on fears that Israel will attack Iran.

After all when you look at the wealth distribution, the world's richest 1% own 40% of the world's wealth. So, how difficult can it be to get one group of people to manipulate prices of commodities?? And they are from this group.

Take our rice crisis. A couple of weeks ago, the prices went spiraling up because we were told that there was a shortage. Day before, BERNAS said they were able to get rice from Thailand at a very low price. So they are lowering the price of their fragrant rice somewhat. If memory serves me right, a few weeks ago, I thought we were informed that the Thais did not want to sell any rice to us cos they have a shortage too. Now, suddenly, even before the present planting season is over, we can suddenly get cheaper rice. Somewhere in the last few weeks, people in the rice business have made a killing. But rice is staple food, you can't keep it up for too long without worries of riot which are happening in the Philippines, Bangladesh and a few others more. In Malaysia, with the fuel increase, something has to come down to placate the people. Already there are people taking to the streets, in small groups so we are told.