RAM Manufacturers Fined for Price Fixing

TufelKinder writes "From Law.com: 'In the largest fine ever obtained by San Francisco antitrust prosecutors, a Korean company has agreed to plead guilty and pay $185 million for its role in a conspiracy to drive up the price of computer chips.' Micron and Infineon have also been fined for their role in the scheme." From the article: "It's the third-largest fine of its kind in the United States, and it could be just a preview of even bigger penalties. The far-reaching computer chip investigation, which alleges wrongdoing from 1999 through 2002, affects thousands of consumers."

Comments

That sound...

[CarrionBird]

Was the joke flying right over your head. *WOOSH!*

Close...

[jgardn]

Some of the reason you listed for gas prices are wrong.

(a) Crude oil costs only accounts for about 1/3 of the total price. If oil prices double, then you'll pay about 1/3 more at the pump. If they halve, you'll pay about 1/6 less at the pump. The price of crude is rising due to China and the rest of the world recovering from stagnation in the early 2000's. OPEC has been producing more to try and lower the price, but their supply cannot keep up.

(b) Federal and state taxes contribute about 1/3 of the cost as well. While these are fairly static, they are still gradually rising. Consider that many gas taxes are implemented over time (ie, a few cents more each year is taxed.)

(c) The remaining third go to the costs of distribution and profits for the companies involved. The reason this is so high is because of environmental regulations are very strict, requiring several different types of blends be used in different parts of the country at different times of the year. Combined with the bottleneck that you can't store gasoline and use it the next year, and it's really hard to build more refineries, we run into a bottle neck every summer where we just can't refine the oil fast enough.

As far as the oil supply being finite, that may or may not be true. But noone has suggested that supply is actually decreasing today, nor will it for the next several decades. More and more oil is discovered every year, and exciting new ways of extracting oil from previously useless sources are being explored. If crude prices remain above about $30, we can begin extracting it from shale and it will be profitable.

If we begin drilling in ANWR and restart the pumps throughout Texas, California, and other states, we can do a lot to lower the price of crude. But this won't solve the problem of refining. We need to lighten the regulation and we need to allow more and bigger refineries to be built. We should also allow people to stockpile refined gasoline to help smooth out the peaks and valleys of demand and supply. It would help a lot if we could build more supply lines and upgrade the ones we have now as well.

You'll notice a common thread: It is environmental activism that is really causing the most significant increase in your gas prices. Get rid of that and you can enjoy your sweet nectar for a more reasonable price. And remember: The purpose of the environmentalists wackos is not to fix the environment, but to shut down our economy and destroy our capitalism.