THAT is a big story. Time is so desparate, they use cheapo writers like students. Pathetic. It is now all over the internet that these “professors” say oil is rigged.
What’s really pathetic about all this is that no one on this damn thread is actually arguing against what the authors of the article are actually saying. Am I the only person here who actually read the damn article?
All the article is saying is that the vast majority of oil the world consumes is bought by OIL COMPANIES by OIL PRODUCERS (not the same thing, dammit!) in PRIVATE DEALS. Because these deals are private it is hard to reach a universal, publicly known price. That is purpose the futures market serves. The futures market helps determine the price of oil for the PRIVATE DEALS. Because the futures market is small, however, it can be cornered. Why is this so friggin’ hard to understand. If 9 billion dollars can buy up all the contracts in the futures market, it’s obvious that the market can be swayed in one direction or the other. And because the OIL PRODUCERS have a lot of money, why not try to sway this price.....THEIR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS NOT TO MAKE MONEY ON THE FUTURES MARKET - THEY ARE ONLY TRYING TO DRIVE UP THE PRICE OF OIL BECAUSE THEY WILL MAKE MORE IN ANOTHER MARKET!!! THE FUTURES MARKET DICTATES THE PRICE FOR THE OTHER, MORE PRIVATE MARKET. They are leveraging the futures market against the REAL market for oil. Do you guys honestly think that the futures market IS the market used by OIL COMPANIES when they want to buy oil to refine?? GO To NYMEX.com and take a look at how much oil is ever delivered - it’s close to nothing!! You people clearly didn’t read the article, and are only trying to make this a political issue. Why don’t you go to their wikipedia page and read what the Officer-Hayes Hypothesis is really saying. You’ll learn something from it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer-Hayes_Hypothesis
People, people, people...