Can't something be done with Wall Street commodity traders?

As far as I know there has been no disruption of the oil supply and these bastards have driven the price of gas up to $3.50 and probably will go well over $4.00 all over what they speculate may happen. These bastards may put the economy back in a tail spin just as it is starting to recover a bit, all over pure speculation.

that tried to do something about energy independence, but Congress shot them down

someone who wants to truly regulate the financial sector, name names, and go after the criminals. Don't hold your breath with what we have currently. Timmeh's whispering sweet nothings into their ears.

so what if they crash the economy again.

and would solve a lot of our "deficit" problems.

Congressman that has tried to put a tax on each trade they make. That could raise a lot of money, the day traders and speculators make trades who knows how many times in just one day. Of course he hasn't been able to get any or very little support for such a bill.

which the US can't regulate by itself.

over and over again for 3 decades we can't be dependant on foreign oil and until we get off oil we are at their mercy.

is actually disrupted it will the Great Depression all over again.

That because people rise up and throw off the shackles of their oppressors,
we here in the US will suffer a great economic depression?

IOW, the fluttering of butterflies in Saudi Arabia will decapitate the lifestyles of the rich and infamous?
<grin>

And with republicans in charge of the house, well that isn't going to happen, now is it!

Sure the democrats dropped the ball. They had a chance to do something about it, but oil money runs deep, and way to many in congress get some of that money! The house will do nothing to stop this insanity. They will do whatever they can to make sure there are no new regulations on the oil companies, and no new taxes! The people need to stand up and say enough! The problem is so many in this country are brainwashed into thinking that this is the "American way"! They can't see that the greed of a few are affecting everyone else, and even if they are still "doing well", sooner or later they will be hit by the greed, and then, and only then will they see just how this greed is destroying this country, and the people in it!

Believe it or not other countries don't always kow-tow to what the US government wants.

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That's the quickest way to burn the craziest of the speculators and force them to sell.

For five years, world oil production has been essentially flat -- a "bumpy plateau" characterized by price volatility.

It's true that speculation amplifies the volatility, but the problem is not "pure speculation." The problem is that oil is entering a long-term, irreversible decline.

Still, that doesn't excuse these bastards from being bastards!

Blaming "speculators" addresses only a small, small fraction of the problem.

For every trader that is speculating that the price of oil will rise and thereby driving up the price, there is someone on the other side of the trade betting that the price will go down. There are already "circult-breakers" in most commodity exchanges that prevent rapid changes in price (like what happened in Trading Places). The problem is that there is general recognition that the supply of oil will be on the decline at some point in the future. The only question is when. We all know it's a finite resource.

Anyone expecting that prices WON'T go up is fooling themselves.

That's what I might do if I was so certain that the speculation was mispricing things that I was calling for government action.

all of which flow from the destruction of the middle class.

the rich have far too much money, more than they know what to do with.
and because the shrinking middle class is stuck in dead-end jobs, shrinking home values, and too much debt, there's no real demand for new small businesses.

if you're rich, the only "good" places to put your money are
a) too-big-to-fail companies able to bribe their way to riches and
b) commodities or whatever the latest boom-bust fad investment is.

as a mega-trend, food & energy & metals commodities will rise due to increasing population and decreasing reserves. but that doesn't explain the shorter-term trends. what does is the dearth of good investment.

good investments are created when a strong middle class can BUY stuff. but we've been reduced to just paying down debt and overpriced health insurance and so on. i.e., funding the too-big-too-fail companies who have bribed their way to riches.


eventually, the good investments will follow the middle class, which is emerging in places like india and china. THOSE countries will have good new investment opportunities, but in practice, the rich people here play that game by investing in too-big-to-fail companies who then buy up those new opportunities abroad.



the idea of doing something about commodities traders misses the big picture entirely.
tax the rich so they don't have so much money they start putting it in stupid places and help support the middle class so they can create legitimate demand. THAT will solve the problem.

but, of course, you need to solve the government/industrial corruption problem first....

Tastes like pork!

They're a mess to clean, tho.

See if you can understand this:

For the past 6+ years oil production has been stagnant. Oil supplies are not growing. They are pumping oil as fast as they can just to keep up with demand and new sources capable of making up the difference are not being found. Any fluctuation in either production, exports, or supply is going to cause price volatility.

Here is a chart of current oil exports provided by DUer GliderGuider:



THAT chart has NOTHING to do with speculation. That chart is cold hard facts based on reporting agency (IEA, EIA, etc) numbers. When you already have a decrease in oil exports and you add the possibility of removing even Lybia's small amount of exports, there will be speculation in the market, as we are no doubt seeing now. But the problem is FAR from being "pure speculation".

Your chart shows the 6-year plateau nicely.

Soon, though, the cliff is behind us and we have our "coyote moment":

Protect yourself, get out of dollar-based assets.

We don't live in a democratic, capitalist society anymore. Not after 2000.