Are Greedy Oil Speculators to Blame for the Price of Gas?

...as the Dems now claim...or is there another cause(s)?





You opinions please. Keep it pithy, and no bloviating!, and remember, the spin stops here!Are Greedy Oil Speculators to Blame for the Price of Gas?
The liberals in congress created the oil situation when they began to seriously limit oil and energy production by following the radical environmentalist agenda that damages our economy by shuting down our industries through environmental regulations and energy shortages.





The speculators....the Big Oil CEO's, and the Arab Oil Sheiks...they are ALL TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION CREATED BY CONGRESS AND THE LIBERALS, AND THE ECO-NAZIS THAT HATE aMERICA.Are Greedy Oil Speculators to Blame for the Price of Gas?
It's not a claim if it's a fact....





Phil Gramm drafted the legislation that makes that speculation possible and inserted it into the 2000 Commodities Futures Modernization Act. He did this specifically for his wife who worked at Enron hence the nickname, the Enron loophole. If there is another cause, then why are the Saudi's laughing about increasing oil producing capacity and saying that they have a surplus and that they can't get rid of the stuff.
I think now that the Speculators mostly consist of people hedging against the weakening US Dollar, they are, in part to blame. Let's not forget the lands that Oil Companies have leased to drill on, as well as Congress' inaction to fight the Environmental Lobby and open up more areas for drilling.





The strangest thing about the investors, though, is that they used to Hedge in the Gold Market, rather than Oil.
It isn't just the Dems that claim this. Oil speculators are different from oil companies.





The speculators are betting on an increased demand on oil and stagnant supply to drive the price of oil up. They aren't the only reason for the spike in prices, but the fact that they are right makes it worse because more and more speculators then throw their money in the oil futures.
You know. I think what people forget... Speculators get paid no matter what the price of oil is... And it isn't just oil that they help set the price on. It is all commodities... a lot of stocks...





These are very high paid white collar bookies.


They could ';speculate'; the cost of oil all the way down to $24 (like it was 9 years ago) and not one of them would lose a penny...





There are already regulations in place to keep insider trading from happening... I mean, Martha Stewart went to prison for it, and they couldn't even prove it! All they got her on was lying about it! (not sure how they proved she lied, since they couldn't prove she did it)... So, I don't know.


Not sure speculators have as much to do with it as some would have us believe...





But, riddle me this...


If it IS speculation, how does lifting the federal ban on drilling NOT cause the speculators to ';foresee'; more supply in the future and thus cause the price of oil to go down in the short term??? Gotta be one or the other, right? Can't have it both ways!
Every resource known to human beings is subjected to speculation and everyone engages in the activity at some level. Commodities speculators do not have the power to manufacture higher or lower prices of commodities. Rather they make educated ';bets'; on whether those prices will be higher or lower at some future time. Like any other ';bet'; sometimes they win other times they lose. The sucessful ones have more wins than loses obviously. The actual condition which cause those prices to rise or fall are the results of political decisions, consumer behaviour, producer behaviour and ';acts of God';





It realy is this simple.
yes partly...the speculators and big oil are probly the biggest culprits, because it bothers me that this is the only market that is so impactful on consumers and yet depends entriely on fear-based speculation...and why are the oil companies setting records with their profits while gas prices kill other businesses?....o, and bill o'reilly sucks


and jason or whoever: where do you get $.09 per gallon profit and $.12 tax per gallon for the govt? big oil makes at least double that and federal tax alone is $.14 per gallon roughly.
Speculators are to blame for about $45 of the cost of a barrel of oil. Our weak currency is to blame for about $15-20 of the cost of a barrel of oil. So, $141-$45-$20= $76 which is where oil should be selling at.
Not at all, its the American addiction to oil that is to blame. News that the US used 1% less gas last month has the Mid East worried. Americans need to cut consumption by at least 10% to control the price. Of course it's like asking a heroine addict to stop using.
I used to think so until I realized that our government actually makes more money on taxing gasoline than The oil companies make in profit. Which by the way is in the billions and billions of dollars. Go figure?





Oil companies profit about .09c/ gallon


State %26amp; Federal Government about .12c/gallon
No it's the high taxes on gasoline, and the fact that the congress has causes us to have less and less refineries. And the fact that we refuse to drill our own oil, where we can more easily become independent of oil countries.
Doesn't matter.





DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS.





http://www.americansolutions.com/Default鈥?/a>
they are part of the problem, but skyrocketing demand from india and china are also contributing to it.
No hippies are, and populist crap guys like bill spit out.
The spin is stopped no answer
partly but as much or more blame goes to the global warming nuts...


always nosnod
SUV's
Not entirely but it has hurt us