ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH WATCH THE OIL
by David Sisler
OPEC announced Tuesday it was considering curtailing production, and in less time than it takes for Ted Kennedy to shout "gun control" the price of gasoline was accelerating. The price changed at the pump faster than the vote count in Florida.
On Tuesday an AP news story said, "Energy analysts warned of stiffer oil prices to come if OPEC members curtail their crude output, as expected, by at least 1.5 million barrels or 5 percent a day. Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheik Saud Nasser Sabah, said there is a near consensus' among OPEC' s 11 members to cut production by that amount when representatives meet next week in Vienna, Austria."
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who met with OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez on Sunday, warned that any hasty action to squeeze production could have adverse consequences for the global oil market.
OPEC is expecting prices to fall during the second quarter of the year, after the northern hemisphere winter, when energy consumption peaks in industrialized countries.
"The United States is one of the world's leading oil producers, with an output of 8 million barrels a day. If prices drop significantly, the first to be hurt would be the U.S. oil sector," Rodriguez said.
Aren't you glad OPEC is concerned about us and is protecting our pocketbooks?
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what price-gouging is." On Monday night, January 8, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline (in Augusta, GA) was $1.12 (round up the 9/10s to a buck thirteen whoever came up with the tenths thing was a genius). On Tuesday morning it was $1.16 and Tuesday evening the price of a gallon of regular was $1.22. Wednesday morning, $1.26. Thursday evening, $1.34.
Has anyone been watching this, or have we all been, as my Dad used to say, "Asleep at the switch?"
Check out another news report. Even though this event has not yet happened, it has already been published: "And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine'" (Revelation 6:6).
William Barclay wrote, "a measure of wheat was consistently defined in the ancient world as a man's ration for a day. A penny was a working man's wage for a day. Normally one penny bought anything from eight to sixteen measures of wheat and three to four times as much barley."
John the Revelator is foretelling is a situation in which a man's whole working wage for one day will be needed to buy enough wheat for himself for that day, leaving absolutely nothing to buy any of the other necessities of life and absolutely nothing for his family. If instead of wheat he bought barley, an inferior product, he might manage to give some to his family, but again he would be able to buy nothing else. Life's necessities will soon be famine-time scarce and yet a universal decree will forbid interference with the supply of luxury items wine and oil. And make no mistake, that oil was fuel oil, not cooking oil.
The next time you stop at the local convenience store and fill er up, paying inflated prices for oil products (OPEC hasn't yet changed their production schedules and the price at the pump has already jumped 20 percent I call that inflated) remember, things are unfolding exactly as the Bible said they would. You can trust the Bible. And the God of the Bible. And his only begotten son, Jesus.
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Copyright 2001 by David Sisler. All Rights Reserved.
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