Reply #43: Sorry, Chavez is on record explicitly stating what I said [View All]

"$50 a barrel - that's a fair price, not a high price." That's Chavez, talking about the long-term benchmark price for OPEC oil (not just Venezuelan heavy oil). Seems pretty clear to me.

That's from April of this year, btw. Read it for yourself.

http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06040503.htm

Also, you omitted to mention that this $50 OPEC target price is a huge increase from what the previous OPEC target price. Chavez was trying to strong-arm OPEC into raising its official benchmark price by almost double.

Fair, of course, is a word everyone interprets differently. My interpretation is that $50 per barrel is unfair to poor people and poor countries...but a windfall for Chavez and other oil-rich countries.

Chavez has been threatening cutbacks in production lately to maintain artificially high prices. Typical cartel behavior. I see no difference between the market manipulations of the oil baron Chavez and the other oil barons of the world. They play hardball with other people's economic health without much concern for the suffering their manipulations create.

Peace.