I note that oil inventories are at an extremely high level---approaching record levels. Yet gas inventories are low. Accepting this as a factual premise, what does it mean?

Does this mean that capitalism as a system does not work, and has not been working? If it had been working wouldn't capital have been invested by the players in the market to the point we would have equilibrium between oil availability and gas production?

Or does this mean the market is and has been a manipulated market? If this should be the case, isn't this an admission that free markets are and have been a sham?

How does the government fit into this calculus? Is it just this oil driven administration at the helm of this ship, or have past administrations been culpable?

Hey, I realize there are a lot of questions here. And these questions raise even more questions. But I operate on the bias that free markets are a myth and advocates of a market system dominance are sloganeering. The oil situation would seem to be a confirmation of this.

Give me a little help here, so I can have some point-counter-point.

Publius