Posts by dustyowl29

Diesel in Iran is sitting at about $2 a gallon... seriously. :-D

electricsurfer47 said:It’s great that you're being an optimist, but hey, maybe mention Africa as a potential market too? Since apparently, African Americans might finally need gas to heat their homes because they aren't quite happy with the outdoor temperature lately.

Sure, India is probably getting more gas now, but like... how much exactly??? And where would they even store it? They don't have the storage facilities or the infrastructure to actually pipe gas into people's homes. Plus, they don't even have a massive industrial base that demands that much supply right now.
If the Russians actually want to ramp up sales to India, they’d probably need to invest a ton of money into the country first just to build the stuff needed to make that happen.

Actually, India has a seriously powerhouse metallurgical industry—they're the second largest steel producer in the world, trailing only China. But their energy backbone is coal. The idea of them modernizing all those furnaces to run on gas? Yeah, I highly doubt it.

Gerald Torres84 said:Ehh... if things really kick off over there, we are all going to be even more screwed.
It is a struggle between the first and second superpowers of the world... I don't really associate Russia with being a major power anymore... they only stay relevant because of their nukes.

But let's not forget—they are still an absolute powerhouse when it comes to energy.

brightheron64 said:Maybe now we can actually hope that gas prices don't jump up another 30 cents this Tuesday like everyone is predicting—though when they asked Marić about it just now, he couldn't give a straight answer...

Just the announcement of the decision itself should be enough to cap oil prices on Wall Street at around $110.

Once this war finally wraps up, everything will just slide right back to how it was—because at the end of the day, money talks.
Buy low, sell high. It’s that simple.
Otherwise, we'd have to go out and actually cut, armor, or blow up those pipelines coming out of places like Ukraine or Belarus. Now *that* would be a genuine move to ditch Russian oil once and for all. But let's be real—even if we did, things would probably "fix" themselves pretty quickly. This whole thing? Just games within games...

The dollar and oil are climbing while the dollar is sliding—all thanks to the news that the European Union is halting its Russian oil purchases.
The Euro is nothing more than an artificial bubble.

Arthur Miller7 said:Man, I don't even know how to respond to that. I literally just got back from Paris—there were like 70,000 Englishmen at the Champions League final, people were paying over $3,000 black-market for tickets! The city was absolutely packed with tourists. I live in Iceland and nobody's complaining; gas is around $2.20 and people are traveling like crazy. Iceland is chronically short on tourism workers—just the other day the news said we're missing 9,000 people... German cruise ships are rolling in every single day. Even in Dublin, the airport was pure chaos—people waiting three hours, over 1,000 people missing flights. To me, this doesn't sound like a crisis or poverty to me at all.

Germany and France—the industrial powerhouses—are actually the ones in deep trouble.

The current president didn't actually win a legitimate election.
It’s like saying a pig gave birth to a calf—it just doesn't happen.

Putin is a dictator. And honestly? There are way too many young Americans who have no interest in spending their entire lives stuck in isolation from the rest of the world.

You hit the nail on the head by leading with Putin—but let's be real, even he isn't immortal. The assumption here is pretty straightforward: once he's out of the picture, those Russian oligarchs will be itching to get back to their lavish lifestyles, while the younger generation will be chasing after all the latest Western trends. Nobody actually wants to slide back into the 1980s, living through an era where people were basically wiping themselves with old copies of The Truth.
So, I’m looking at more than just Western prosperity; I'm looking at the fate of the Russian people, who have spent forever living under some kind of boot. They’ve had enough. Either everyone starts fleeing en masse, or Russia has to pivot its policy a bit. It doesn't need to be a total overhaul, but this radical approach? It just isn't sustainable long-term.

Americans are already feeling the squeeze of poverty. It’s hitting people all across the US, plus folks in places like Romania and Bulgaria too. If these sanctions keep getting extended, we’re looking at a total collapse into misery—literally starvation territory.
Even the wealthier nations—Germany is struggling big time with the drop in living standards, and France isn't far behind. Even here in the States, people are losing their minds because gas prices have spiked by 50% in just the last three months.
Long-term? This whole situation is completely unsustainable.
We're talking economic contraction, skyrocketing unemployment, and prices that just won't stop climbing. Eventually, politicians will be forced to back down just to avoid social unrest and total chaos—not to mention trying to save their own skins for the next election cycle.

Look, I respect every nation's right to sovereignty, but let’s be real: if it wasn't for help from the West, Ukraine would have been halfway conquered by now. Everyone is getting exhausted by this—Americans, Russians, and the rest of the world dealing with the fallout.
I’m expecting negotiations to start soon, along with some easing of those sanctions. We need oil back under $100 and gas prices returning to something resembling normalcy.
Europe simply isn't ready to live without Russia yet. That’s something they should have been planning for since 2015—not suddenly trying to scramble now, and certainly not at the cost of wrecking their own economies.

There are plenty of other options out there... Apple could just as easily move production to Bangladesh, Vietnam, or wherever else they feel like moving next.

I actually just picked up a new computer recently—brand new Intel Core i7 inside—and sure enough, it was made in Malaysia.

Nathan Evans78 said:The Germans could probably build everything right there in Munich if they had the guts, but instead, you'll end up putting a second mortgage on your house just to afford the equipment. I'm talking about regular Americans, too—not the folks on this forum, because let’s be honest, everyone here is basically a billionaire. People are out there buying Chinese smartphones on 24-month installment plans. Just imagine if a Siemens phone was assembled using USEKUAUKUS parts... you'd be paying it off over 420 monthly installments! 😁

Why wouldn't a Samsung be assembled in Vietnam like it always has been?
As for Apple, they'll keep things moving in China. Sure, they can easily find an alternative country, but those are massive foreign investments that China isn't keen on losing. When Huawei got hit with those sanctions, the Chinese people boycotted the iPhone for a bit, but fast forward a few years and the iPhone 13 is selling in China just like it used to... so, mission accomplished. It doesn't have to be some German Telefunken mobile. Honestly, there aren't really any smartphone manufacturers in Europe—it's either Apple, the Koreans at Samsung, or whoever else makes them. I personally stick with Samsung, even though I do have an Apple product lying around the house... an iPad.
For TVs, I go with Sony or Samsung—currently rocking a Sony.

Anthony Hill5 said:We are talking about a Chinese TV box that is packed with Western chips and processors and runs on Android.

Exactly. Most of the time, they're just assembling parts—sometimes they design things themselves, but usually, they can't quite pull it off on their own. Aside from the early days with HarmonyOS, anyway.

China is going to play both sides of the fence. If countries like Canada and Mexico can pull off that kind of balancing act, China definitely can too. Honestly, those are always the players that come out on top. It’s an old story—worked just fine back in the old days of America.

Everything you’re reading in the media is pure fiction.
The real truth stays tucked away, far from the public eye.
Neither Russia nor the EU has gone bankrupt—not even close. There’s plenty of oil everywhere; it just depends on how much the US decides to mess with the prices to make them go haywire. Apparently, there’s talk about implementing price caps, so that’s definitely on the table. As for the Arabs, they aren't looking to ramp up production back to pre-pandemic levels, let alone anything higher.
The bottom line? The oil is there. You've got 100 Iranian tankers practically begging for ports to offload. Politics is a mess, and we're the ones stuck footing the bill.
In reality, the big winners are Wall Street and the European stock exchanges—those absolute thieves playing the markets. Even Americans are paying record-high prices for fuel right now. We're seeing gas hit around $3.40 a gallon. Honestly, it's getting close to what people pay over in Europe.
Over there, their prices have tripled.
Once Americans finally decide to push back, that's when the government will step in—using economic, military, political, or straight-up blackmail tactics.
It’s a dirty game, but nobody plays it quite like the USA. We’re all just waiting to see how things shake out in America, because honestly, neither Russia nor the EU can move the needle here—not even China. Nobody manages to pull off anything significant without Uncle Sam stepping in to tilt the scales.

urbanheron4 said:Let’s not forget that shipping via tankers is way more expensive than just running it through a pipeline. Plus, you can't move nearly as much volume all at once. And honestly, there's no way the Indians or the Chinese are going to pay top dollar like the European Union used to. They'll still buy some oil, sure, but they're definitely squeezing the margins.

Word is, Russia is offloading to China and India at a steep 23% discount compared to market prices—meanwhile, Iran is sitting at an 18% discount. That explains why you see Iranian tankers idling not just off the coast of Florida, but all over the map. Even though the European Union hasn't actually sanctioned Iran yet.

Sure, obviously—but it doesn't have to be via pipeline; they can just use tankers. Plus, with the Arctic melting like crazy, the Northwest Passage is becoming a viable route to Asia.

Oil is flowing straight into China and India... though India has pulled back just a tiny bit lately. Meanwhile, China is predictably snapping up Russian oil at prices under $100—though heaven knows what kind of currency they're actually using for the transaction.

So, I spent some time yesterday falling down a YouTube rabbit hole—watching this Russian creator who’s been posting for over 20 years now—comparing how much everything cost back before February versus how it looks today...

So, they aren't swollen or bleeding either.