YARNIN' ABOUT FREEBOOTERS IS MORE FUN. No, Big Oil is not the latest incarnation of the Corsairs of the Spanish Main. That, however, does not stop the conspiracy buffs.

The drop in prices may last a couple of months, long enough to get through the November election. Could that be what the oil companies want?

(Pillaged from Newmark's Door.)

Another Newmark would have such lubbers walk y^e planke.

It just goes to show how ignorant of simple economic principles the mass of the American people are. And of simple logic. If the Republicans had such massive powers over the market price, why would they have allowed it to go up so sharply the past 12 months. Undoubtedly, those high prices contributed to the funk and anti-incumbent mood that many voters seemed to have been in. Why couldn't the Republicans have waved their wizard wands and kept the prices low in the first place?

No wizard wand, only a Lyapunov attractor have we.

Petroleum analysts say the reasons are less Machiavellian: Supplies are above average, partly because summer's high prices attracted record imports. Hurricanes haven't knocked out Gulf of Mexico production. U.S. regulations permit a cheaper-to-make fuel blend in fall and winter.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, there is not any manipulation, and it has nothing to do with the approaching election,” says Peter Beutel, head of energy-price consultant Cameron Hanover. The petroleum market is “too big a market to manipulate. The price just … could not sustain itself.”

To be precise, swabbies, it's a market so vast that the Lyapunov attractor is the core is the competitive equilibrium. Say a prayer for for my Advanced Theory class, which will leave in December understanding how most of this works.

At Cold Spring Shops, fewer pieces of eight are going into the oilman's chest. 11 August 2006, 12.66 gallons, $ 40.50. 17 September, 13.34 gallons, $ 32.00. Yo-ho-ho-and a bottle of Sprecher.