B) the incompetence of the Regress in recognising this, accompanied by their dildonic refusal to push for enforcement of **EXISTING** law.
Shouldn't the enforcement come from the Attorney General, federal or state, as an Executive function ? Or are you making this commentary in response to the idiotic hearings held by Congress, where they interrogated the oil company executives, instead of, as you have laid out, called for the enforcement of existing law which would have avoided the kind of speculation by institutional investors of which we are now reaping the whirlwind ?
It appears to me that Congress is as you describe it, and President Bush and his Executive function is a spent force.
Thanks and FReegards.
Any officer of the United States, which amazingly includes members of the Regress, can petition the DOJ to enforce existing statutes when enforcement appears lax or non-existent. The $64,000 question is: will someone in the Regress petition, and will the DOJ bureaudorks listen to the petition and act on it, you know, as guardians of the public trust and all that.
Answer: probably not, unless the petitioner has an awful lot of whoofle dust. I don't think Bush's DOJ gives a tiny rat's behind about this particular subject. Strange attitude, too, coming from a putative ''oil man''.
Nonetheless, the manipulation of energy mkts by investment banks is a very hot hot-button issue with a decent percentage of the population, and rates to become much more so, much faster, if energy prices keep rising. Sort of the old ''peasants with pitchforks'' deal.
The other side of the coin, removing the ''swaps exemption'' for investment banks regarding position limits in sundry mkts, is going to be tougher. One way or another, the big banks own enough Regresscritters to forestall any legislating in this area...or at least until their actions become so egregious as to be obvious to even American Idol watchers.
To be scrupulously fair about it, even Sen. Bunghole Bingaman (D-Fantasyland) has caught on to some degree. In a letter to CFTC published today, he specifically mentions the swap exemption (thus demonstrating he's no more than 4 months behind the denizens of Free Republic who follow energy-mkt threads...heh heh heh). Perhaps something will come of it.
After all, it is, as you pointed out, an election year.