oil speculation


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Oil Slicks: Who Benefits From Gambling on Gas Prices?

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
February 22, 2012

Anybody who doesn't believe that energy speculators can change election results might want to ask Gray Davis, the former Governor of California who was removed in a recall drive partly prompted by voter frustration over California's ongoing energy crisis. Only afterwards did we learn that the crisis was caused by speculators who backed his opponents' deregulatory agenda - and benefited from it. more »

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Act Now to Prick the Oil Price Bubble

By Meghnad Desai
From us.ft.com
June 6th, 2008

us.ft.com — There is a growing feeling that the latest sharp upsurge in the price of oil may be a speculative bubble rather than an outcome of market fundamentals. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicated last week that there may be "system risk" and George Soros, the veteran investor, in testimony on Capitol Hill, warned that commodity index funds, which treat oil as an asset rather than a commodity to be bought and sold for use, are creating a bubble.

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Soros Warns of Oil "Bubble"

From ft.com
June 3rd, 2008

ft.com — Billionaire investor George Soros is to tell U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that "a bubble in the making" is under way in oil and other commodities and that commodity indexes are not a legitimate asset class for institutional investors. He is expected to tell a congressional committee that rising oil prices are the result of a number of fundamental changes and factors in the market, but that the relatively recent ability of investment institutions to invest in the futures market through index funds is exaggerating price rises and creating an oil market bubble.

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Oil Trading Probe Disclosed

From washingtonpost.com
May 30th, 2008

washingtonpost.com — During continued volatility in oil prices, federal regulators said that they had been investigating crude oil trading, storage and transportation for the past six months with a focus on possible "futures market manipulation." The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which normally keeps investigations confidential, said in a statement that it was "taking the extraordinary step of disclosing this investigation because of today's unprecedented market conditions." Those conditions have sent oil prices to record heights, adding to the U.S. trade deficit, hurting consumers and companies, and weighing heavily on the nation's economy.

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What To Do About the Price of Oil

By Robert Weissman
From huffingtonpost.com
May 29th, 2008

huffingtonpost.com — Whether or not Big Oil is improperly restricting refinery capacity, whether or not Wall Street traders are driving up the traded price of oil to heights completely disconnected from supply-and-demand fundamentals, a few things are clear about gas prices — and so is the most appropriate, immediate policy response.

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The Oil Nonbubble

By Paul Krugman
From nytimes.com
May 13th, 2008

nytimes.com — All through oil's five-year price surge there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand. So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there’s an oil bubble?

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