Help Fight America's Oil Crisis

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Help Fight America's Oil Crisis

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Locus Coeruleus

7/10/2008 6:57 PM

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An Open letter to All Airline Customers:

Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now. Visit www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers.

Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem. We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

Robert Fornaro Chairman, President and CEO AirTran Airways	Bill Ayer Chairman, President and CEO Alaska Airlines, Inc.	Gerard J. Arpey Chairman, President and CEO American Airlines, Inc.
Lawrence W. Kellner Chairman and CEO Continental Airlines, Inc.	Richard Anderson CEO Delta Air Lines, Inc.	Mark B. Dunkerley President and CEO Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.
Dave Barger CEO JetBlue Airways Corporation	Timothy E. Hoeksema Chairman, President and CEO Midwest Airlines	Douglas M. Steenland President and CEO Northwest Airlines, Inc.
Gary Kelly Chairman and CEO Southwest Airlines Co.	Glenn F. Tilton Chairman, President and CEO United Airlines, Inc.	Douglas Parker Chairman and CEO US Airways Group, Inc.

--
HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!

cleopatra143

7/10/2008 7:01 PM

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Yeah I've seen that. They can't blame only oil speculators though. They also need to look internally and stop buying all their executives personal jets, vehicles, bonus', etc instead of passing on the expense to their customers. Big business's crack me the hell up. I worked out at DFW airport and had to deal with AA and DFW owners personally (DFW is the hub for AA). I've seen their spending habits first hand.
-- "Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others." -William Allen White

Konrad von Richtmark

7/10/2008 7:23 PM

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Well, cleopatra, do you think those companies provide the CEOs with benefits because they feel generous? Don't you rather think they'd like to pay out that money in dividends? Dividend payment is the bottom line of every commercial company. I'm not saying that there is anything moral about the wages and benefits CEOs are provided with, but I contest that there is anything irrational about them. The CEO labour market is driven by supply and demand like any other.
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Scipio Africanus

7/10/2008 7:40 PM

Grognard fantôme

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Stop buying from middle men; makes regulations on speculating irrelevant.
-- "'The front' is wherever you stop running away. Get used to it. This is what modern warfare looks like." K T Cat

cleopatra143

7/10/2008 7:57 PM

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Konrad von Richtmark (7/10/2008) Well, cleopatra, do you think those companies provide the CEOs with benefits because they feel generous? Don't you rather think they'd like to pay out that money in dividends? Dividend payment is the bottom line of every commercial company. I'm not saying that there is anything moral about the wages and benefits CEOs are provided with, but I contest that there is anything irrational about them. The CEO labour market is driven by supply and demand like any other. You are right in some respects but if I was a business owner (and I have been), the first thing I would do is cut the fat so to speak. Perhaps I am too idealistic. However I know that many airlines have already started charging customers for baggage, taking out in flight entertainment, carry less items, scheduling less flights, laying off personnel, etc. So they are trying it would seem, but probably not in the way they should. If you are facing an economic downturn, the last thing you want to do is start handing out bonus' and fat checks to the people at the top. I guess that's just me though. Too bad.
-- "Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others." -William Allen White

jerm

7/10/2008 9:11 PM

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The bonuses these CEO's get are chump change compared with profit margins. Ironically these kinds of things are also driven by speculation. Boards of Directors of companies "speculate" that putting these goodies in CEO's contracts will provide the top notch from the CEO pool. Many times they are right. If you want the best, you gotta pay em what they're worth... from a market standpoint, not a moral one.
-- -A government that is powerful enough to do anything for us is powerful enough to do anything to us. -Fred Thompson -There are two races of people, the decent and the indecent. - Victor Frankel -They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. - Benjamin Franklin Consequences

jerm

7/11/2008 12:36 AM

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Okay, on the oil speculation market. This is why increasing alternatives to the world market of oil are vital. This includes offshore drilling and drilling in ANWR. I've heard somewhere that global demand has actually been a wash since oil prices have been going up. Sure demand in the emerging world like China and India have risen, but demand has dropped in the Industrialized nations. It seems that speculation is driving the market. Doesn't this mean that we should give a reason to speculate lower prices in the future? Lift the blanket of regulation which is destroying our economy. Allow drilling in a tiny area of ANWR which also happens to be a barren wasteland. Allow offshore drilling especially, as Tosk points out, China is already doing it! Allow power companies to build Nuclear Plants and even give incentives for alternative sources of energy. Encourage a 4 day work week. [joke] Drop a fewe nukes on China [/joke]. Do what we gotta do to get viable alternatives for fuel for vehicles. Give the speculators a reason to predict lower demand or higher supply. Putting regulations back in to the system is akin to using a bandaid to fix a heartattack. Get out the blood thinners .
-- -A government that is powerful enough to do anything for us is powerful enough to do anything to us. -Fred Thompson -There are two races of people, the decent and the indecent. - Victor Frankel -They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. - Benjamin Franklin Consequences

Nuclearcow

7/11/2008 5:22 AM

Udderly ridiculous

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Oil speculation is one way the uber-wealthy stay uber-wealthy. I doubt they will do anything about it. It'd be nice though, wouldn't it?
-- "For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal. " -- John F. Kennedy "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." --Patrick Overton "It doesn't matter where you are as much as where you are headed." --Mike Shanahan

jerm

7/11/2008 2:08 PM

Elite Pathogen

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