What role Wall Street investors play in the high cost of oil is a hotly debated topic in "Washington. Despite weak demand, the price of a barrel of crude oil surged more than 25 percent in the past year, reaching a peak of $113 May 2 before falling back to a range of $95 to $100 a barrel.
The Obama administration, the Bush administration before it and Congress have been slow to take steps to rein in speculators. On Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a U.S. regulatory agency, charged a group of financial firms with manipulating the price of oil in 2008. But the commission hasn't enacted a proposal to limit the percentage of oil contracts a financial company can hold, while Congress remains focused primarily on big oil companies, threatening in hearings last week to eliminate their tax breaks because of the $38 billion in first-quarter profits the top six U.S. companies earned." KC Star
------------------------------
Jump ball!
- There is no oil shortage presently driving high prices.
- We are being screwed by traders, hedge fund managers, etc.
- The Saudis do not love us. They will probably join in the "screwing" soon, if not already.
Go for it. pl
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/25/2903397/saudis-often-warned-us-about-oil.html#ixzz1NlU59pvo
