Anyone in Australia who doesn’t think the petrol industry is riddled with price fixing and collusion between the major players?

Today, petrol here is 146.9 cents per litre (*).  This morning is was 10 cents cheaper.  What a coincidence that this weekend is a long holiday weekend, and also the start of ski season just down the road from Canberra.  What a coincidence indeed that this happens every public holiday, every school holidays, in fact every time people are likely to be doing more travelling than usual.  Truly bizarre coincidence!

Yet that is exactly what the petrol companies tell us is the case.  They don’t collude or fix prices in any way. Sure, they do, just not in any way that leaves evidence.  And even if there was evidence, I think the various governments in Australia, and regulators, aren’t that interested in finding it.

Maybe they don’t collude, but I heard a guy from the service station association talking on the radio this morning and he was saying the petrol companies all subscribe to an electronic monitoring service which gives them real time indications of price movements across the major metropolitan areas.  He also said something along the lines of the petrol companies employing spotters who drove around taking note of their competitors prices.  He suggested that any price movement was well and truly known within about 10 minutes of happening, and competitors then made decisions about whether to match it or not.  Guess what usually happens?

Of course, collusion is no longer really necessary, as all companies know how the game is played and its all done with a wink and a nod, no traces left.

(*)  For those in the US, this is approx $US 4.15 per gallon (so we’re quite a bit higher than your average at the moment of $US 2.76).  If you’re in the UK, try 60p/litre.

Technorati Tags: petrol prices, gas, ripoff, price fixing, collusion

According to reports on the news just now, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the purported leader of the Iraqi insurgency against American, coalition and Iraqi government forces, has been killed in a US air raid.

All I can say is good riddance … a blight on humanity eliminated.

Al-Zarqawi was supposedly Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq. General George W Casey Jr, the head of US-led forces in Iraq, says his death is a significant blow to Al Qaeda, but:

“Although the designated leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organisation still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorise the Iraqi people and destabilise their Government as it moves toward stability and prosperity,”

It will be interesting to see what impact al-Zarqawi’s death has on the insurgency in Iraq. I suspect not much, although it is a morale boost to the US and Iraqi government forces. Problem is there are so many fundamentalist nutcases around that someone will step up and fill the leadership role and continue committing atrocities.

I find the portrayal of Al Qaeda in the media sometimes fascinating. Sometimes it seems like Al Qaeda is a franchise like McDonalds, with branches all over the world, all controlled by Osama bin Laden from his cave in Afghanistan. I suspect reality is that it is more a loose alliance of like-minded nutjobs, than anything organised more formally or tightly controlled.

Technorati Tags: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda, Iraq, insurgency, Osama bin Laden