[sport]

obama knows that. obama knows what he is doing. The fools that worship and blindly follow him may not know, or care, but obama knows full well what he is doing. He also knows what he has planned for the fools that blindly worship him, follow him, and do his bidding.

[Nervous Tick]

Good article. Thank you.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Why is it that we have to participate in the “global market” at all, if we have sufficient potential to provide our own energy with our own domestic market prices?

[mac_truck]

Many studies by reputable academics have looked at whether speculators are responsible for volatility in commodities markets and found that this is not the case; price swings have overwhelmingly been driven by economic fundamentals.

What were the 'economic fundamentals' that led to the spike in oil prices in 2008?

[Beagle8U]

The thing the article fails to mention is buying massive amounts with little to nothing in cash to cover the futures purchase.

That drives up prices on the futures, which are then sold at inflated prices.

That is what is happening today. Even Eric Bollings, who worked in that business, said that.

Require real assets to cover the trades and that problem instantly goes away.

[traditional1]

The millions of dollars of contributions from Oil Interests to the DNC and The Messiah’s Re-Election coffers are used to keep additional oil off the market (Keystone, Offshore Drilling, ANWAR, etc.). Follow the money, as always.

[Buckeye McFrog]

But regular unleaded is down about 13 cents in this area since he did it.

Victory lap commencing in 3......2.......1.......

[chopperman]

The way that government interferes is by raising margin requirements. This is what they did last year with Silver futures and it collapsed the price.

[super7man]

Thus the whole purpose of commodity speculation is to moderate volatility

If commodity trading is used by someone to moderate their exposure to volatility, then it is not speculation. If someone is using it to try and make money it is speculation. But you need both to keep the market going.

If a farmer and an onion buyer are standing by the road negotiating a price for the farmer's onions and two guys are standing on the other side of the road betting on the outcome of the negotiation, how does their betting influence the negotiation on the other side of the road? I think it does not.

[dirtboy]

There are three factors at play here, IMO:

1) Japan is having to use oil for much of its electrical generation to make up for the shutdown of its nukes, therefore offsetting the large drop in gasoline consumption in the US as of late,

2) The Obama Administration's actions have helped increase the tightness of supply by cutting back on American exploration and development, and

3) In market conditions where supply and demand are tightly aligned as we see now, the high leverage for speculators allows them to drive up prices well beyond what we have seen in the past for such conditions - namely in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 - the bubble is generally short-lived but very profitable for those who can also short it on the way down, and it is painful for the consumers having to pay the higher prices at the pump.

There is no one factor causing these price spikes, several factors have to be in alignment. Unfortanately, too many involved want to point at other culprits and not realize the culpability across the board nowadays.

[dearolddad]

So... What happens if all of the speculators decide to move their business off shore?

[DMG2FUN]

The leftist aka progressive blame high gas prices on every thing but them. No new refineries. Epa laws mandating more then 20 different blends of gas for the nation.