Shamus wrote: I hope you guys are kidding. I hate bush, but he had nothing to do with rising oil prices whatsoever. The world does not revolve around the United States on this issue.
Supply and demand, lack of adequate refining facilities is it. A few dumb people who drive hummers in the U.S. would affect the price of oil generally zero. It's China, Packistan, and other emerging countries that are driving up the prices.
He is very much at fault. Firstly, after 9/11 he had an opportunity to remake America and the transporation system. But, because American's wanted a 'regular guy they could drink a beer with', in the White House, they got exactly what they voted for. A moron, that did nothing. Even worse, he allowed the speculators to run rampant and his administration changed laws to make it happen. It's not big oil driving the price, nor China, nor the lack of refining, don't kid yourself. It's the speculators. According to the Senate speculators are driving the price above $60 a barrel. Based on supply and demand, refining, and everything else, it should be $60 a barrel, but it's not.
2006 Senate Report - Until recently, US energy futures were traded exclusively on regulated exchanges within the United States, like the NYMEX, which are subject to extensive oversight by the CFTC, (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)including ongoing monitoring to detect and prevent price manipulation or fraud. In recent years, however, there has been a tremendous growth in the trading of contracts that look and are structured just like futures contracts, but which are traded on unregulated OTC electronic markets.
The trading of energy commodities by large firms on OTC electronic exchanges was exempted from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron and other large energy traders into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 in the waning hours of the 106th Congress. The impact on market oversight has been substantial. NYMEX traders, for example, are required to keep records of all trades and report large trades to the CFTC. These Large Trader Reports, together with daily trading data providing price and volume information, are the CFTC’s primary tools to gauge the extent of speculation in the markets and to detect, prevent, and prosecute price manipulation. In contrast to trades conducted on the NYMEX, traders on unregulated OTC electronic exchanges are not required to keep records or file Large Trader Reports with the CFTC, and these trades are exempt from routine CFTC oversight. In contrast to trades conducted on regulated futures exchanges, there is no limit on the number of contracts a speculator may hold on an unregulated OTC electronic exchange, no monitoring of trading by the exchange itself, and no reporting of the amount of outstanding contracts (“open interest”) at the end of each day.”
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2008/0502.html
