Ah gee, the oil speculators are "upset" about government interference in the "free" markets, by the

release of the oil reserves

These speculators are the antithesis of a free market.

I hope they lost their collective asses yesterday

vote for them to be tarred, feathered, and rode out of town on a rail and then rode back in on the rail and thrown into prison for about twenty years hard labor. Just my opinion.

Just my opinion.

:toast:

not happy when the shoe is on the other foot

I second your opinion

when it gets down to $75 a bbl I'll be happy, and then we can put these signs up again

The "free market" hasn't been "free" for a LONG time!

I need contact info so I can tell them to kiss my ass.

the godless Ayan Rand.

“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.” Adam Smith

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/progressive-economics/07/13/the-myth-versus-the-reality-of-adam-smiths-political-economy/

Outside of these points, The Wealth of Nations serves as an of his time reaction to the impact of corporations and mercantile interests on economies and governments. More specifically, Smith spent much of his book reacting to the growth of the East India Company, whose stockholders were to be found on every level of government decision making in Great Britain and thought to be adversely effecting foreign policy and internal financial systems. Smith was also appalled at the exploitation under the reign of the East India Company, including the starvation of over 30 million people in modern-day Bangladesh due to British-imposed tariffs.
Smith to this end was in favor of heavy-handed government regulation to prevent financial and corporate powers from manipulating government policy for their own ends. This led him to conclude on the nefarious impulse of corporate manipulation, that when “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.”
The legacy of Smith continues to diverge further and further from the reality of Smiths principles which were heavily influenced by Rousseau and other humanist figures of the Enlightenment. Smith advocated for a system of progressive taxation and a political economy centered on the freedom of creative pursuits but protective of the working class. Considering how his legacy is enshrined today, it seems out of place to realize that Smith’s chief concern was for economic policy to be secondary to moral and ethical concerns such as economic equality, freedom of speech, and dignified and just labor conditions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43510170/ns/business-going_green

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/23/news/economy/spr_politics/index.htm?sechttp://www.cnbc.com//id/43509547tion=money_news_economy&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/money_news_economy+(Economyhttp://www.cnbc.com//id/43509547+News

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/obama-administration-oil-reserve-tap_n_883572.html

"The timing of the release brought criticism from business groups and Republican lawmakers, who accused President Barack Obama of playing politics with the country's oil reserves, which are intended to address emergencies.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/06/23/2401618/us-and-others-plan-biggest-release.html#ixzz1QD6RiIuZ"

They realize that sooner or later we have to refill the Strategic Reserve, and that will provide them the perfect excuse to gouge some more out of us.

independent, and put these clowns out of the position where they can manipulate oil prices so easily

But in the long run, they're not going to lose money, and frankly consumers will not gain much, if any savings.

Thirty million barrels released over a month? Wow, that's about one and a half days worth of US oil consumption, literally a drop in the bucket. Released over the next thirty days, that's a five percent increase in the supply of oil. If we're lucky, we might, just might see a ten percent drop in gas prices, for a month, maybe two. Then the prices will level out, and probably along about September, just in time for labor day, we'll see prices start to creep back up, and pretty soon we'll be back to where we are now, if not worse.

This is simply political theatrics. People's driving and buying habits were driving the price down through less consumption. This is just giving the oil junky another hit to keep them coming back for more.

you. In spite of the libyan situation, there is plenty of oil

And pocket the difference.

Corporations do this all the time. They hold on to some number of shares at all times. And when the price goes up they sell some, particularly those shares that they purchased at a lower price.

When the price goes down, particularly when the dip has no real basis, they leverage a "stock buy-back program" and repurchase their own stock at a discount. When the stock goes back up, which it usually does, they profit.

In this case, the speculators have been pushing the market up, and it recently leveled off. The surprise dump from the SR will drive the price lower.

With one move, the government set it self up to make a profit, and, probably more importantly, they created an unpredictable variable that they speculators now have to worry about. If the speculators get over extended, and the administration dumps from the SR, they speculators get caught short, and they lose big time.

for their own selfish greedy agendas.