I can’t believe how smart I was 20 some years ago. Here’s chapter 31 of my long out of print book, which is pertinent today. Titled, “The Great Diesel Fraud.”
” For close to twenty years we have been robbed blind by one of America’s largest industries, at a huge cost to the consumer, and for some strange reason, no one has done anything about it. This hand in American pocketbooks has continued without interruption. No one seems to be objecting. I hereby vigorously protest, and I hope the victims do something. We are all victims. If Poland, East Germany, (they were divided when I wrote this), Czechoslovakia, (it was whole then), and Hungary can throw off their totalitarian oppressors, surely America can throttle the oil companies!
“The plain simple fact is that diesel fuel and # 2 heating oil, (which are the same), require but a fraction of the refining of gasoline. Diesel and #2 heating oil, not only take less refining, but are less dangerous to refine, and require fewer additives. In other words, diesel costs a lot less to produce than gasoline. These facts always had the price of diesel about a third lower than gasoline, as least until 1973. Diesel has more energy (BTU’s) per gallon than gasoline and doesn’t explode, so it is the preferred fuel for heavy equipment. A gallon of diesel can move a truck almost twice as far as a gallon of gasoline. Since the shortages of 1973, all oil companies have raised the price of diesel, to equal or higher than gasoline. The effects are not hard to observe.
“Let’s say that the average highway tractor trailer gets five miles per gallon, and is paying a dollar a gallon for fuel. (this was accurate 20 years ago!). This is a 20 cent per mile fuel cost to deliver America’s goods. If the price of diesel fuel were 65 cents per gallon, (!) the fuel cost for the same truck would be only 13 cents per mile. An extremely conservative figure of a quarter billion miles per day being driven by truckers, plus railroad locomotives, farm tractors, and home heating furnaces, means the American public is having several BILLION dollars added each week to the cost of literally everything. The diesel gouge, costs you maybe an extra $5-$10 each time you buy a week’s groceries. a couple hundred for each car purchased, and many dollars for everything we buy, day in and day out. Home heating costs are at least a third more than they should be if oil is used. All merchandise requires transportation of some sort, and every food product requires diesel farm equipment to produce. The cost to America is astronomical.
“I defy anyone to prove me wrong. The plain simple fact is the oil companies have engaged in a huge price fix for close to two decades. (Four and a half now). Where are the highly paid bureaucrats in the justice department? Why has a literal price fixing, crooked, cartel, been allowed to exist in America all these years? Why hasn’t the marketplace brought the diesel price down? I just don’t know, but I am certainly tired of this, and I wish some oil company would compete rather than going along with the fix. America would welcome diesel competition. It would save us billions every year.
” If we truly had a free market system in America, this wouldn’t happen. As it is, there are so many intricate, unfathomable, sticky wicket deals between industry and government, that we may never know!” End of chapter.
As some explanation, I do know that the EPA hasn’t allowed any new refineries to be built in the last 30 years, and the northeast uses lots of #2 to heat in winters, but that is only a small part of it. It is a fraud for sure. I neglected to mention in the chapter, that diesel was invented by German Rudolph Diesel, and that diesel engines self-ignite due to heat generated by huge compression ratios, and require no spark plugs, distributors, or tune-ups, plus outlast gas engines, because they are built to take those high compression ratios.
There is literally an unprecedented demand for silver and gold, because more and more people every day, are deciding to get out of dollars. There IS NO SILVER SHORTAGE, just a shortage of manufacturing capability, which eventually will change. Example: The US Silver Eagle is stamped from blanks made by Sunshine Mint in Idaho. Sunshine also makes my A-Mark Rounds and ten ounce silver bars. They are working 7/24, and of course divide their production between rounds and bars, as well as blanks for the US Mint at West Point New York. If there were a shortage of silver or gold, the prices would be going through the roof, as they will eventually, but not now. Now, it is merely an incredible buying opportunity. Yesterday alone, I got close to ten new clients who had been recommended by someone else, or had been watching the web site a long time, and figured it was about time. It is about time to protect yourself, and especially at these prices!