My 2 cents: Oil futures trading must be terminated. There is plenty of oil supply yet prices are rising like no other while many in the industry are talking about market manipulation using futures trading, something along the lines of what Amarath tried to do with the natural gas prices. Counterparty forward agreements can be used in place of futures for accomplishing the same things, like future delivery, hedging, etc. This will immediately sqeeze speculators out of the market. Stock prices, inflation, the dollar etc are feeling the impact of the artificially high oil prices while some oil producing countries and corporations have trouble finding a place to store the huge amount of cash they accumulate at the detriment of the consumer. At the same time, Europeans are acting like cowards again and they do nothing because they have a high tax on oil and oil products and use the proceeds to finance their highly corrupted and heavy on public sector states. Something must be done before inflation starts spiking up and prices skyrocket beyond control. It happened before and it will happened now with severe impact on equity prices and purchasing power in general. Are the people that rule this country sleeping or what? Ron
It is clear that this is happening, you will sell commodities sell off with a rally in the Yen implying that a lot of the speculation is because of the carry trade. Oil can't be delivered (stored offshore) yet prices are going higher, in addition we have backwardation in pricing implying that everyone is trying to sell at today's prices (since the future is cheaper). If there indeed were a suplply problem why are people in such a hurry to sell today? Usually these type of things end very nasty and it is my hope that the government/society doesn't intervene in letting prices go where they should. You might be saying no one would complain about cheaper crude prices but I have a feeling somehow if it drops quickly (thus killing the indexes since SPY has a lot of drillers, refiners, etc) it will be used as some reason for a handout or we need to support higher prices or something wierd and stupid.
Pardon sir, and where are you from? The European states are certainly not more corrupted than the US burocratic empire is. Also the US has, to my knowledge, the most expensive and wastefull public sector, aka the Ministry of Defense. The whole of EUR combined spends less than half as much on their military as the US does. Could it be that the European Countries just prefer to let the oil-price be dictated by free-market forces, if you know that expression? Shortage of oil, caused by excessive usage by countries preferring to close their eyes to the future, has of course effect on the price of the supply. It is only good that the price goes up, thus stimulating the search to better and more sustainable sources. As a side-effect, maybe those ridiculous 5ton vehicles will stop selling. Btw. if there is any government, personally profiting from the increase in oil price, it is that if the US of A. Go figure. Ursa..
Yes you right Oil futures are the reason and cause of growing world inflation. Honestly people like you shouldnt be able to reproduce. I wish the worlds problems could be solved so simply. Sir you are a moron
I've got a much easier solution. Turn off your computer and the TV and you won't even know about rising CL prices. It's as if it isn't happening! Same logic.
Europe is a corrupt basket case whose leaders stayed out of Iraq simply because they were being bribed. Europe doesn't spend any money on defense because they know America will pull them out of any jams they get into. Europe couldn't even handle Bosnia without the USA. Europe pays so much for Oil simply to keep its socialist governments in power. John
You are an ugly American and a cliche there is no doubt there. Stop watching Fox and start thinking for yourself dickhead
Yes Europe is a basket case just look at their currency strength (you know what that is yeah?) Corrupt yes they had a their leaders win with less votes (no that was the US). Europe doesnt spend as much on defense? Probably because they dont start wars on baseless grounds with made up intelligence and the to call it "defense spending" is quite Orwellian dont you think? (Orwel was a European BTW)
It is obvious that you lived in a country that imposed price controls for the last 70 or so years. Are you saying that you will teach Americans about free market forces? Are you that ignorant? Ron