This thread lately is reminding me of that quote I read: "That Fish Prince, he's really a prince."

Good work.

More stuff to ignore.

Testimony before the Commodities Futures Trading Commission:
http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/hearing080509_masters.pdf

Exxon CEO:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzne...60-70-a-barrel/

Senators call for restricting speculators from artificially driving up oil prices:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=6081e46b-e70f-4ee5-a02e-df11fc82551f

Richard Hirst, Delta Airlines General Council to federal regulators: "the speculative bubble in oil prices has concrete detrimental consequences for the real economy.”

Richard Moskowitz American trucking VP: “Excessive speculation has caused dramatic increases in the price of crude oil, which harms end-users like America’s trucking industry.”

Another explanation of Speculation:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/148751-excessive-speculation-defined

and on and on and....

Oil speculation only works to increase prices if producers are hoarding until higher futures contracts emerge. Nobody's hoarding now.

Reading can be an eye opening experience. You should try it sometime.

Yeah and when stomping your feet doesn't work then Captain Obvious appears.

This is only what actual economists with PhD's have written about in peer reviewed journals. Clearly, some partisan hack journalist knows more about this issue than you ever could.

I'm still waiting for Stlhead to copy and paste something showing why when priced in gold or swiss francs, oil prices are more or less flat. Why is it only when priced in dollars and euro that the price seems to rise? What do the speculators have to do with that? Why are all the speculators buying longs and not shorts?

Like most economic issues, it is intertwined with worldwide human behavior and a complicated situation. Having a simple answer, like "it's the speculators," is bound to fail. You will never be able to prove it was speculators and all experimental evidence points away from this simplistic explanation.

Here is my list of what are the factors causing the price increase in order of magnitude:

1. Inflation
2. War and threat of war.
3-98. A bunch of crap we don't even know about.
99. Speculators.

Since it is easy to control what the government does with inflation and threats of war simply by electing a new government, and that is also the most likely cause, I'd start there to fix it.

How would you propose stopping people from betting on these oil futures worldwide? Or are you planning on just bitching about those speculators with no solution to the problem just so you can ignore the problems caused by the government itself?

If we just got rid of the oil futures market and beheaded all those capitalist scumbags, we could inflate the currency all we want and blow up Iran and disrupt the oil supply with no consequences to the oil price whatsoever. I read the talking points from some libtarded partisan hack news paper and then rush over to some obscure internet fishing chat site, parrot them back to people and get upset when people tell me I'm full of BS.

/sarcasm

People are already whining because the price is going up just due to the threat of war, they are going to be in for a real sticker shock if war does come.

war will be coming.. they are already discussing what to do with the Syrian WMDs if and when the regime collapses... also, the top US war officials have already stated that Israel will likely be bombing Iran within the next few months... and with Iran blabbing about its nuclear advancements like this is a game, i wouldnt be suprised if its sooner, and the US is involved as well... we already have ships real close by, the 5th Naval fleet with the Supercarrier is already patroling the area from Bahrain... sh!ts gonna hit the fan, and could drive up the price of oil to 200+ dollars a barrel...

$200 barrel oil will be all the speculators fault, the war will have nothing to do with it.

I think we will do the same thing with the non-existent Syrian WMDs that we did with the non-existent Iraqi WMDs.

Israel has been bombing Iran for the last few months already. It's just not total outright war, yet.

Ship'em back into Iraq?

I think he meant "wander in circles in the desert, not find any WMD's, and then say that we were there to______________ "...and fill in the blank with whatever reason sounds good this week.

Syria and Iran are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

Fish on...

Todd

Using the old "spread democracy" excuse seems to resonate pretty well with the ignorant.

It's a cover up for that evil conspirator inflation. Even the CEO of EXXON is willing to lie to the US Senate in order to protect it.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Wall Street is pushing to stop a new rule that would crack down on speculation in the energy markets, which many blame for contributing to the spike in gas prices.
The new rule -- part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to reform Wall Street -- would set limits on how much traders can buy, preventing firms from grabbing large chunks of the energy market.

But those limits may not be set anytime soon. Nearly two years after the new law, the rule has yet to be fully implemented. And on Monday, two Wall Street trade groups asked a federal judge in Washington to delay or block the rule.
Representatives of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which filed suit against the rule in December, appeared at a hearing at which they sought an injunction barring the rule's immediate implementation.
The Wall Street groups said in a statement that the rule was lacking on an economic basis, and would harm markets if implemented.
8 great fuel-efficient cars
The suit spurred one commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the body that regulates energy trades, to urge that regulators speed up position limits to prevent consumers from paying more at the pump.
Commissioner Bart Chilton estimates that Wall Street's "speculative premium" has raised the price to fill up a Honda Civic by $7.39.
"You can't turn on the television or the radio without hearing about record high gas prices, and yet the CFTC has not yet been able to implement Congressionally mandated position limits to put the brakes on excessive speculation in oil and other commodity markets," Chilton said in a statement Friday.
Even if Wall Street loses in court, the new position limit rules can't take full effect until two months after the agency has issued a definition of what qualifies as a swap, which is due out in April.
Gasoline prices have risen in recent years as global demand grew. But the biggest factor for the recent price boost, according to analysts, is fear that tensions with Iran will lead to an all-out war that causes a disruption in oil supplies.
Last week, traders set a record for the amount of money they bet on higher gasoline prices, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

Yet, the lobbying group for swaps firms points to several studies that conclude there's little to no evidence that speculation in commodities markets causes price volatility.
The Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition -- representing airlines, truckers and heating companies that depend on gas prices -- says it is convinced speculators cause price spikes. They also point to studies that suggest a link and have decried the slow pace of a crackdown on Wall Street bets on energy markets.
"We think these position limits are necessary ... they're long overdue and the market would see a benefit," said Jim Collura, the group's spokesman.

He is entitled to his opinion, just like you are. It's an opinion that speculation is causing a price increase, not a fact. I don't care what the CEO's opinion is. I only care about facts. He did not provide any factual evidence in that article.

It is a fact all other things being equal that inflation causes price increases. It is also a fact that a disruption in supply causes prices increases (aka War in oil producing countries). Both of these facts are provable in an experimental setting, where speculation has not.

You can ignore facts if they conflict with your political opinions, but why bother spamming an internet chat board with your opinions? Only people who already agree with your opinions are going to agree with you, people who don't agree with you are going to need facts to be convinced. You are in short supply of facts, but in high supply of other people's opinions.

The futures market rises on anticipation of future price increase in the spot price, what is causing this anticipation?

Ah, f-it, let's get rid of those evil speculators and then just print a couple of trillion dollars and bomb the crap out of Iran, what could go wrong?

Yup, all of those experts are idiots compared to the great FPrick troll.

It doesn't matter who says it. What matters is logic and facts. Both of which you are in short supply of.

So what's causing the speculators to all bet on a price rise, what is the cause of the anticipation?