Posted on 04/17/2012 6:02:22 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Under pressure to take action on rising gasoline prices, President Obama wants Congress to strengthen federal supervision of oil markets, increase penalties for market manipulation and empower regulators to increase the amount of money energy traders are required to put behind their transactions.
The White House plan, which Obama was to unveil Tuesday, is more likely to draw sharp election-year distinctions with Republicans than have an immediate effect on prices at the pump. The measures seek to boost spending for Wall Street enforcement at a time when congressional Republicans are seeking to limit the reach of federal financial regulations.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Oil speculation is only PART of the problem! INFLATION is the BIGGEST cause for our current gas prices!
A barrel of oil is selling for about $102 - which is only about $20 more than when Obama took office! This Administration has printed money at such a rate that the American dollar is not as valuable and oil is traded in American dollars!
This attempt to regulate speculation is nothing more than a ploy and distraction and BS! He is trying to act like he is doing something - and he already has - he created the INFLATION!
As a good comparison, when gas was over $4.00 a gallon under Bush in 2008, a barrel of oil was $145!
Evidently the republicrat Congress which doesn't do a damned thing to put the brakes on anything this destroyer does.
Dear Leader taking over the natural gas industry Friday and today it’s gasoline.
Tick, tick, tick.
And not a flippin' word from our Conservative Leaders in the alternative media i.e Beck, Levin etc or the Alternative Financial media.
We are on our own....
Did Obama just validate Mrs. Palin and Mr. Bolin by taking their advise on increasing margin on oil futures? I think he did. But, but, but,....Palin, they say, is ignorant and out of touch with no real life or managereal experience. How can the left, any more, criticize Palin as ignorant. They are duplicitous and corrupt and intriguers....also they are pricks.
Told ya so.
When Barry was finally forced to confront rising gas prices his tactic would be to go after the Grrrrrrreeeeeedy Speculators.
Thanks Army Air Corps
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Obama could have fixed this two years ago. He's been sitting on the solution until he can score political points off of it. Here's the thing:
Oil speculators DO affect the price; however, speculation itself is not bad. That's normal market forces. The real issue is that, currently, speculators can buy oil contracts on very low margins, literally pennies on the dollar. So there's no risk--they can buy, say, $10 million in oil contracts for $500,000, sit on it and wait for the price to go up. The Dodd-Frank bill, passed TWO YEARS AGO, gave the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the authority to raise the margins or eliminate them all together. However, the CFTC has 5 members: 3 D's (one of which appointed by Obama) and two R's, and the D's have been purposefully delaying implementing the new rules on margins.
Once again, the R's miss the point because they were looking in the wrong direction. They've been out there saying it's Obama's policies, and now he's going to swoop in and "solve" the problem.
And get a $52 million slush fund on top of it (after all, why does he need $52 million to do something the CFTC already has the authority to do?).
NOOOOO.....the commission had the power to do this 2 YEARS AGO....he’s using it for VOTES!!!
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