We dodge bullets all the time. We have de facto monopolies all around us in the US and which are run by monopolists - not capitalists. Price fixing has been going on for decades in the US.

Already back in the day, the latter part of the 20th century, most retailers could not sell or advertise products less than the manufacturers official "sale" price. Everyone had to advertise the official price or risk losing their franchise. The same thing today occurs with gasoline. No independent seller can arbitrarily sell price lower than what his supplier permits.

These unspoken rules manufacturers and suppliers put on their retailers is done to defeat capitalism - not support it. It puts all the retailers in the same boat and only their geographic location, etc. determinses their success over each the other. They can sell higher - but they can't sell lower.

Competition is defeated. Progress and service are thwarted.

Walmart has a stranglehold on manufacturers because it actively seeks relationships with foreign (Chinese) manufacturers to create products that compete with the products of their suppliers! Walmart is a manufacturers nightmare, because they have a stranglehold on marketshare and dictate prices to manufacturers. They will dictate the price they will pay for goods and if the manufacturers balk they will create competition.

The Bratz doll was created by Walmart to compete with Barbie in such a manner. They took employees and data from Mattel and just jumped in feet first with a sluttier barbie to force Mattel to meet their purchase pricepoint. Walmart gave their bimbo Barbie almost equal shelf space in their stores and shelf space is everything in the retail game. Mattel is merely suing the company Walmart used to create Bratz, since they still need Walmart. Mattel will likely win, but only after the damage to Mattel's bottom line has been done.

That's just one example of the games played with products and pricing today. Oil companies, like Walmart, are run by monopolists not capitalists. They don't want a FREE market dictating price of oil. By controlling retailers they control the supply that reaches the US and foreign markets. Do some research into who owns what gas stations and you will quickly find that there are NO independent sellers left. You remember how Congress was used to squash Chinese refineries from selling oil in the US? Welcome to oil monopolism at work.

Price controls are the way things work when it comes to oil. If the supplier says the price is up 10 cents tomorrow. The retailers stick up the new price and adjust the pumps accordingly - even if they are selling the same gas that was deposited in their storage tanks two weeks ago. Each state and neighborhood in the US is mapped and the price of gasoline will almost always vary no more than 10 cents from the Shell station on one side of the street and the Texaco station on the other. Usually the price variation is 3 cents or less with often both stations advertising an identical price.

That's the way they have muscled in to the top ten of the Fortune 400. Brute monopolistic force. Don't let Tom tell you any fairytales about the free market dictating price for oil. Tom's in way over his head on this one.

If a gun boat approaches a tanker in the straight, the price of oil shoots up. At this point it isn't that far-fetched to imagine speedboats being run by Iran solely to keep the price of a barrel of oil shooting up.

Objective reality dictates that Iran wants to keep oil prices high. Their modernization depends on this. Their political clout, like all mid-eastern nations is certainly not based on their cultural contributions to the world - it exists solely in the price of a barrel of oil.

If we walk from Iraq and the unstable government gets approached by TOTAL or some other ruthless company, our purchase contract is as good as gone. We then must negotiate from a position of weakness with Mexico, Canada and OPEC for increases in output to make up for the difference.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, we dodge bullets all the time. As foreign markets consume more oil the suppliers have shown greater resistance in playing ball with us - the greatest consumer/buyer. This will only get worse. The artifical prices of a barrel of oil are already proof of their success in controlling perception. "Peak oil", refinery shortages, "middle-east tension" are part of keeping oil's value insanely overpriced and making some folks rich - the monopoly way.

And the oil companies know they make FAR more money by holding off on building new refineries much like the water companies make more money without desalinization facilities all over the place. It's all an illusion at this point.

Capitalism and free markets have real meaning. Monopolists give capitalists a bad name. They want to cheat and bypass the free market.

Ayn Rand would be the first to decry the practices of monopolists who are AFRAID and too LAZY to deal with honest competition to make their money and profit.