[JJ]

stumbled across this...
http://www.financialsense.com/editorial ... /0826.html

[Southpaw]

Nice one JJ

[eastbay]

Emailed it to a few friends... Thanks.

[vision-master]

Posted on 2012 forum.

[VMarcHart]

I have no doubt things will slowly-but-surely get worse and worse. But then, that's my bold prediction for the day.

One comment is the article and graph showing demand outstripping supply from '05 to '08. Demand, unlike consumption, is rather difficult to quantify. Was the unmet demand the number of buy contracts without respective sell contracts? We know Paru didn't mean consumption, because we can't consume what isn't available.

I'm confused.

[JoeW]

Was the unmet demand the number of buy contracts without respective sell contracts? We know Paru didn't mean consumption, because we can't consume what isn't available.

I'm confused.

The confusion can all be cleared up when you realize that the whole system is not a "just in time" system. Product inventories exist, which allow demand to temporarily outstrip supply without resulting in shortages of product.

Inventories in the U. S. are monitored very closely and reported on the U. S. Department of Energy's website every Wednesday at 10:35AM. A decline in inventory means that demand is outstripping supply, and an increase in inventory means that supply is outstripping demand--theoretically, of course. There is always some question to the accuracy of the figures, and inventories can fluctuate week-to-week due to shipping delays or other unusual events. Other fluctuations are seasonal (more gasoline demand appears in the summer, for example).