Free Republic

First the good news: Automotive expert Ed Wallace says there's no gasoline or oil shortage in the U.S. today and near-record reserves are on hand. Now the bad news: Not only has the congressional mandate for ethanol jacked up the price of food, but Washington, Wall Street and fuel producers all want you to think the gas and oil shortage they keep talking about is real. Washington, Wallace says, appears to be protecting oil speculators and ethanol producers rather than the interests of U.S. citizens who will ultimately pay higher prices for food and U.S. farmers, who are already staggering...

A surge in oil prices last week to almost $70 a barrel on concerns about the restart of Iran's nuclear program only hints at what may lie ahead. Prices could soar past $100 a barrel, experts say, if the U.N. Security Council authorizes trade sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, which the West accuses of trying to make nuclear bombs, and Iran curbs oil exports in retaliation. A sharp global economic slowdown could follow. That's the dilemma the United States and European nations face as they decide whether to act. But Iran would also pay a hefty price if the...

A state association whose members include gasoline retailers and heating oil distributors want federal lawmakers to review the commission that oversees trading of commodities, including oil. In a letter to Connecticut's congressional delegation, the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association asks them to press for an investigation of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and that group's oversight of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices for commodities such as diesel fuel, natural gas and gasoline are set at the exchange, and the request comes as prices for those products continue to rise. "What is at stake are, quite literally, the prices paid...

Editor's Note: The following article is a satire. New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer shocked the world today -- as well as the state department and the Bush administration -- with his announcement that he is charging terrorist mastermind and al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden with insider trading. At a press conference brilliantly situated on the hallowed grounds where the World Trade Center once stood, Mr. Spitzer outlined an international investment scheme so heinous that, if properly prosecuted, could lead to the eventual capture and incarceration of America’s greatest terrorist threat. Moreover, according to Spitzer, these investment manipulations...