Tell Congress before they Recess to Stop Oil Speculation Now!

http://www.stopoilspeculationnow.com/ ^ | July 30, 2008 | ncfool

[ncfool]

just thought you would appreciate seeing the update I just received

from the Stop Oil Speculation Now coalition that we joined. I know many of you have used the SOS Now website to contact your Senators and Congressman...

I certainly have and I applaud you. There are many political games being played by Democrats surrounding this oil speculation legislation that have complicated the bill's progress.

We all need to continue to push, but action on this may be delayed until September following the August congressional recess unless we hit them with more email.

-----Original Message-----

From: Phil Singer [mailto:phil@marathonstrategies.com]

Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:30 PM

To:

Subject: New Ad -- please post on website!

Since its launch earlier this month, the SOS Now effort has generated

1.5 million messages to Congress from concerned citizens. The outcry

has been so extraordinary that we've heard that the Senate email

servers have experienced unusually high volumes of traffic at times.

In an effort to keep the drumbeat going, the coalition is running the

attached ad this week in The Hill, Politico and Roll Call.

In order to maximize the reach of the ad, we are asking members and

supporters of the SOS Now coalition to place a websticker featuring the

ad on their respective websites. The following link will take you to

the websticker: http://capwiz.com/sosnow/remotecontent/

All you need to do is copy the html code from this page and paste it

into your Website for the ad to appear. Please note there are two new

webstickers to choose from - one has the recess time sensitive text and

the other is more general.

Please email with any questions and let me know if you have other ideas

for pressing the case.

Phil

[econjack]

I disagree with the premise here, which is more regulation. First, speculators do serve a function and they do temper wild swings in prices, even oil. Second, any attempt to regulate speculators here will simply send those transactions to some other market (perhaps outside the US) where the regulations don't apply. Third, there are enough regulations in place now to prevent speculative abuse. Fourth, some companies (e.g., airlines, bus lines, and other large distillate fuel users) speculate in order to set long run budget targets. And fifth, I just don't want gov't involved in any market more than it already is.

I know that speculators compounded the problem recently, but how much of the run up was due to increased demand, how much due to supply bottlenecks, and how much was due to speculators? I have no idea, but my guess is all three played some role in the price adjustment. If you want to punish speculators, let the market do it. How many do you think took it in the shorts when the price dropped recently? Anyway, I think this is a bad idea.

[avacado]

Yeah right! Kill the NYMEX so that all the oil contracts go to Iran’s new emerging oil exchange! Not a good idea!

[underground]

For the record...

Speculate: 1a: to meditate on or ponder a subject : reflect

Are you a commodity speculator? If so, its probably a good thing.

[Man50D]

Congress critter ping!

[Robe]

You can ban oil speculation all you want,,, the speculators will just speculate in foreign markets

[houeto]

No thanks. I’ll just stick with my tagline. My congressman, Ted Poe, is all for it!

[JMJJR]

Wrong message !

Increase domestic supply, the market will take care of itself.

[boogerbear]

Yeah because nothing bad has ever happened when the government set the price for basic commodities (yup that’s sarcasm).

You do realize that the oil price is set globally and therefore all congress could really do is make it so American companies are unable to meet the price and therefore unable to acquire oil and therefore unable to turn oil to gas and therefore unable to sell you and I gas and therefore we’d become 1970s China and all riding bikes. And no this paragraph isn’t sarcasm.

[JMJJR]

On second thought.............

Threaten to increase domestic supply, and the market will take care of itself.

[fooman]

So you were against speculation when oil went from 146 to 121?

[Democrat_media]

Your profile says you are for freedom. No, you are for government taking away the freedom of the free market. When has government worked? Never.

This is just ONE reason why government planning can NEVER work:
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=9529
Economist F.A. Hayek, most famous for his book “The Road to Serfdom,” developed a theory typically called the “knowledge problem.”

Essentially, Hayek argued that no one individual, or even group of well-informed individuals, could ever have enough knowledge to plan a market. Hayek said that knowledge was localized, meaning every individual has the best knowledge about their specific place, condition, needs and resources, but no one had enough knowledge about anyone else’s to make decisions for them.

Hayek’s free-market ideas were seen as sound reasons why government cannot, and should not, attempt to control economies.
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=9529

You are a Marxist in my opinion and so you are against freedom and against the prosperity that Capitalism brings.

[GourmetDan]

It’s impossible to drive prices in the manner we have seen in a physical delivery market (which oil is) through ‘speculation’. The problem with manipulating a physical delivery market is that somebody inevitably takes delivery of a lot of crude oil. It isn’t an advantage to ‘speculate’ the long side of such a market unless supplies are tight.

Otherwise, all the physical buyers would have to do is pull their bids close to expiry and the long speculators have to sell *cheap* to avoid taking delivery. Somebody is taking delivery of a lot of high-priced oil because they can’t get it anywhere else.

While you may get volatility moves of $10-$20, what you are seeing oil price-wise isn’t speculation. It is supply/demand imbalance. Prices aren’t going back to $60 unless somebody starts pumping a *lot* of oil, and that isn’t going to happen.

[11th Commandment]

NO CAN DO Brother FREEPER. Although there are abuses in the futures market, CONGRESS and the FED are unequipped to reform bad FUTURE practices. They will go overboard and screw-up the honest guy who is VITAL to a free market. This is what they did with SOX, the OTC in 1990, stock options, the housing bill.... do I need to go on.

[ncfool]

Everytime I write Dennis Moore he writes back and says:

“Thank you again for contacting me. While we seem to disagree on this issue, I am confident that there are a number of other issues on which we do agree. I hope you will continue to keep in touch and please feel free to let me know whenever I may be of assistance.”

So we need to keep the heat on the Bums who do not vote the will of the people.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Amen, Toby

[Las Vegas Ron]

Nada

[Jacquerie]

LET YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!

Conservatives express well reasoned thoughts, not emotions. The hoopla over speculation is emotional.

[coloradan]

NC Fool indeed. If you want the government to interfere with markets, rather than let them be, you are not a limited-government conservative; you are a nanny-statist.

[marron]

If you interfere with the energy producers, the prices will go up. Its not that complicated.

But if you are a politician, and your career is based on obstructing energy projects, you’re not likely to blame yourself. Who are you going to blame? The producers. The people who work and invest to bring you energy, you’ll blame them. You’ll blame them danged speculators.

And out there in Oprahville, they’ll probably be satisfied with that explanation. But blaming the brokers who buy and sell won’t get you one more fluid ounce of oil. Increase supply, and you’ll increase supply. Amazing how that works.

If you want to send less money to the sheiks, you’ll have to drill somewhere else... like here, for example. Again, this is not that complicated.

If there wasn’t enough oil here to make any difference, as the pols keep telling us, there wouldn’t be any need to ban drilling everywhere. They have to ban drilling because if they didn’t ban it, we’d be drilling... because there is oil down there. Again, this isn’t that complicated.

[xjcsa]

Pointless drivel. Take an econ class.