Trust me I am in total favor of those bills also Big Diesel however another issue comes up if they are enacted. The Speculaters will simply take it to another market like London or Dubai were the law does not apply. What would hold more teeth is simple called let us DRILL DRILL and build more refinerys and then devolp cellulose base Ethanol and alage based Biodiesel which are both in the pipelines of devolpment and maybe 5 years away. Also get the Hedge funds out of the Commidates markets.

 

I gotta agree with Ironeagle on this one BigD. Trading of oil futures will simply move to Dubai. You are forgetting the basic conservative premise: Regulating stuff simply drives those activities elsewhere.

 

I have to wonder why the price of oil has doubled in the last year?
If it’s supply and demand, (which I doubt) then I can understand the increase in price. But if it’s manipulation by Big Oil (Chevron, BP, Exxon) and Wall Street’s hedge funds fixing the market (Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and their traders) …why doesn’t Congress and the Commodities Future Trading Commission step in?

Traders move the price of oil…when they want to move the price of oil. Large banks and hedge funds control 80 percent of oil contract trading, and are responsible for at least 35% increase in the price of crude. Speculators sell oil contracts back-and-forth to each other simply to inflate the price and reap windfalls.

I doubt there’s a shortage of oil. I don’t see lines of cars at the pumps, heating oil and diesel fuel seem plentiful, some United Arab Emirates countries are increasing production, Iraq’s huge spigot is open again, Brazil announced a monumental discovery and world demand appears to be declining. So why did the price of oil double in the last 12 months then zoom $16 in less than 24 hours?

We have traders at firms who refuse to abide by trading limits, and will argue they are in the business of making money, not policy. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission created by Congress to “protect against fraud, manipulation and abusive trading practices,� is a sham. Its five commissioners are appointed by lobbyists and approved by the Senate to whom they owe their cushy sinecures.

Now in the first week of June, these CFTC toadies announced a series of measures to “bring greater sunshine� and “improve oversight to the energy futures market.�
Ha Ha Ha Ha…too little too late…But it’s common knowledge that we have the best congressional appointees that money can buy.

Look at ExxonMobile alone... they own 29 billion barrels of proven reserves at an average cost of less than $5.50 a barrel. And at today’s price of $144+ a barrel, their combined oil patches are worth a cool $4.2 trillion.
America’s failure to recognize that many in Congress have been enriched by those trillions exposes our gullibility.

 

Well, you can also thank the greedy capitalist Wall Street bankers and mortgage loan companies for the rise in oil prices also.

When the Fed Reserve began lowering the interest rates last year to bail out the mortgage loan companies and Wall street brokerage houses from the over leveraged worhless paper they were trading, the action of lowering the interest rate IMMEDIATELY made the American dollar worth less. The American dollar was worth less in relation to other foriegn currencies.
REMEMBER... the price of crude oil is based on the American dollar. Lower the value of the dollar and oil IMMEDIATELY costs more. Your pay check is also worth less!! A double "whammy". Basically, last year, counting all inflation from other sources, decline in real estate values, gas guzzlers, this and that, your family after it was all said and done, took a 20% pay cut!!!
Since there is no longer any "value" in holding bonds or treasuries, since the fed lowered the rates for the bailout, the investors moved to a "safe haven" although risky area of commodities. If there is a coming collapse of the banking system and Wall Street, which is still very possible. What will then be worth something? Something tangible. Like corn, wheat, lumber, gold, silver and OIL!!
You are absolutely correct about Dubai. It is attemting to be the Hong Kong of the Mid-east. And in my opinion a very corrupt country, where anything goes. No regulations. A very safe haven to transact any multitude of business tranactions. No way will they stop the money pouring into their banks and brokerage houses anymore than American banks and brokerage houses have. The entire financial and commodities system is basically under attack from the very capitalists that scream "free markets" and "no regulations."
The reason we have to enact regulations is that sooner or later a greedy industry will, many times with the help of corrupt politicians, so circumvate the financial system through various means of fraud, and schemes that regulations are needed to protect the public and the small investor.
Make sense now?

 

Someone spends to much listening to their CB?

The US Dollar has fallen mainly because of our trade deficit, which is simply exports minus imports. Another big weight on the dollar is the large U.S. budget deficit. The price of oil has increased because the demand has increased and the production has decreased. It's pretty simple and it isn't rocket science. I could go on and post graphs and quotes but it really isn't worth spending to much time on this.

Oil trading isn't going to stop.

 

Heard this morning on the radio that "experts" are saying that within 5 years we will be paying $6+ for regular gasoline.

 

It's considered "good news" we haven't reached $5.00/gal for regular gas already.

....wow...."good news" these days, isn't like it used to be. :?

Makes you wonder what "good news" will be like in 5 years.

 

If Obama wins we will be paying 10 a gallon before he leaves office.

 

I've been thinking about this alot lately. With the Oil companies claiming that part of the expense is all the different formulations and "refinements" involved...... why do we even HAVE 3 types of gas anymore?? No one really believes that premium is NECESSARY do they? Why can't Detroit standardize this?

I know there's a bunch of stuff about formulations to meet EPA requirement in certain areas of the country.... but what's up with the octane crap?? I think ALL these restrictions could be lifted for the near term, at least, and octane levels standardized, and just MAYBE they could refine MORE gas.... more quickly.... and cheaper!

Just a thought.