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February 28th, 2012
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#21 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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The jews will officially start the war with Iran at the end of March.
Expect new Iran sanctions by late March, early April "The United Nations Security Council is expected to impose additional sanctions on Iran by the end of March or the beginning of April, American officials told their Israeli counterparts at Thursday's strategic dialogue in Jerusalem." Swift May Expel Iran’s Central Bank "The financial messaging service for most international money transfers has told U.S. officials it is prepared to cut off Iran’s central bank, according to people involved in the talks, an action that would be a blow to Iran’s already battered economy." "By including Iran’s central bank, Swift’s proposal...might roil oil markets on concern that buyers will be unable to pay the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for its 2.2 million barrels a day of oil exports." "'This is the financial equivalent of warfare,' Avi Jorisch, a former U.S. Treasury official, said in an interview. 'The administration is very concerned about anything that would spike oil markets. Cutting off Iran’s central bank from Swift would do just that, but at same time, it would deal a knockout blow to Iran’s ability to use the international financial system.'" "In its 39 years, Swift has never expelled any institution from the cooperative of 10,000 member banks and organizations in 210 countries. Swift transmits an average of 17 million financial messages a day, facilitating trillions of dollars in cross-border payments, officials said. According to its annual report, 19 Iranian member banks and 25 financial institutions sent and received 2 million messages through Swift in 2010." |
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February 28th, 2012
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#22 | |||
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Perception Manager
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 2,794
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Quote:
Quote:
In other words, the war drums have been beating for a long time, and nothing has happened. In fact, the Deputy Secretary of State mentioned in that article, James Steinburg isn't in that position anymore. Wiki: Quote:
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February 28th, 2012
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#23 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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You're right about the date in the first article, Roy, but the SWIFT article is current, and the effect on Iran will be devastating.
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February 28th, 2012
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#24 | |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee
Posts: 8,506
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Quote:
Let the damn Jew suck America into another damn war, this time against Iran. At least Iran will wake up Billy Bob and Mary Sue to the realities of foreign intervention as they begin seeing several of their hometown friends come home in a box. |
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March 1st, 2012
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#25 |
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morsning korsning
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Terra Scania
Posts: 674
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http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/en...asoline-prices
= 101 United States: 0.77 You have cheap petrol and yet you complain? |
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March 1st, 2012
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#26 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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US Last among Major Countries in Car Fuel Economy Standards
"The United States continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles... ."  U.S. 'stuck in reverse' on fuel efficiency "CSI found that the number of vehicle models sold in the United States that achieve combined gas mileage of at least 40 miles per gallon actually has dropped from five in 2005 to just two in 2007... ." "Overseas, primarily in Europe, there are 113 vehicles for sale that get a combined 40 mpg, up from 86 in 2005." "Adding insult to injury is the fact that nearly two-thirds of the 113 highly fuel-efficient models that are unavailable to American consumers are either made by U.S.-based automobile manufacturers or by foreign manufacturers with substantial U.S. sales operations, such as Nissan and Toyota." "'These cars sold in Europe meet or exceed U.S. safety standards, so there is no reason why they shouldn’t be made available to U.S. consumers,' said CSI President Pam Solo." |
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March 1st, 2012
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#27 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 8,105
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Purim begins in the evening of Wednesday, March 7, 2012, and ends in the evening of Thursday, March 8, 2012.
Last year's Purim holiday festivities included the commencement of the Libya onslaught. Purim 2003 was 3/18 -3/19 , ( exactly when Bush the Dunce was instructed to begin "Shock and Awe' to kill Sadaam & destroy those terrible WMDs the Mossad warned us all about.) Interesting to see if there is a trend here, because if you're jew-wise , it pays to be extra careful on Jew holidays. http://www.thecooljew.net/2011/03/purim-war.html Last edited by littlefieldjohn; March 1st, 2012 at 11:37 AM. |
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March 1st, 2012
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#28 | |
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Banned
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Posts: 13,170
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Quote:
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March 1st, 2012
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#29 |
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Commie Killer
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,615
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CAFE standards are for Fag Commie Jews!
I should be able to buy and drive whatever I want without some weirdo, who drives in a limo, telling me otherwise. Little cars don't sell that well in The USA. Why? Because people don't want them! They are dangerous traps to put yourself and your family in. Keep them! There is plenty of oil in the world. Available supply is not the issue. I will keep buying 400+ hp V8s until I die. The question is "Why is Gas so high?" Last edited by Fred; March 1st, 2012 at 02:24 PM. |
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March 1st, 2012
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#30 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: The Vampire Ball
Posts: 6,455
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March 2nd, 2012
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#31 |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 290
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Koch
How Koch Became An Oil Speculation Powerhouse
From Inventing Oil Derivatives To Deregulating The Market By Lee Fang on Jun 6, 2011 at 2:42 pm http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch...ion/?mobile=nc  Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch In April, ThinkProgress caused a stir when we uncovered a series of Koch Industries corporate documents revealing the company’s role as an oil speculator. Like many oil companies, Koch uses legitimate hedging products to create price stability. However, the documents reveal that Koch is also participating in the unregulated derivatives markets as a financial player, buying and selling speculative products that are increasingly contributing to the skyrocketing price of oil. Excessive energy speculation today is at its highest levels ever, and even Goldman Sachs now admits that at least $27 of the price of crude oil is a result from reckless speculation rather than market fundamentals of supply and demand. Many experts interviewed by ThinkProgress argue that the figure is far higher, and out of control speculation has doubled the current price of crude oil. Reached for information about its trading division, Koch Industries — America’s second largest private company — declined our request for comment. Writing on his political blog, an attorney working for Koch’s law firm angrily replied to our initial investigation by claiming that Koch is solely a bonafide hedger, meaning that it only participates in speculative markets to reduce risk for the oil the company refines (he also bizarrely argued that speculation has no relation to the price of oil). The spin obscures reality: much of Koch’s oil trading business is actually akin to a hedge fund, buying and selling financial products based on oil with little interest in the actual delivery of the product. In fact, Koch pioneered the risky speculation industry that dominates the world’s oil markets today, first by inventing oil derivatives back in the ’80s, then by working to kill off regulations. ThinkProgress has delved into the history of Koch’s oil speculation business and the following timeline spells out Koch’s leading role: – October 6, 1986: First oil derivative is introduced to Wall Street by traders at Koch. Koch Industries executive Lawrence Kitchen devised the “first ever oil-indexed price swap between Koch Industries and Chase Manhattan Bank.” At the time, such derivatives had been limited to currency markets, and the shift of creating a synthetic financial instrument based on the value of crude oil was revolutionary. For an agreed-upon period, an oil swap is a contract where one party makes payments based on a fixed oil price, and the other party makes payments back based on the changing spot price of oil. In July of 2009, EnergyRisk magazine, a publication for commodity traders, posted a piece exploring the very first oil derivatives and Koch’s role in developing them. – 1990-1992: Koch, along with several oil companies and Wall Street speculators, form a coalition lobbying group to deregulate oil speculation. A coalition called “The Energy Group” is organized to press the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to allow oil derivatives to be traded off the NYMEX or any other regulated exchange. Participants in the coalition include Koch, Enron, Phibro (a powerful commodity speculator firm recently sold from Citigroup to Occidental Petroleum), J. Aron & Co (a commodity trading division of Goldman Sachs), BP, and other companies. – January 21, 1993. Wendy Gramm makes first major move to deregulate oil speculation. “On the final day of the [George H.W.] Bush administration, January 21, 1993, [CFTC chairwoman] Wendy Gramm … approved the rule exempting key energy futures contracts from government regulation and returned a great chunk of the energy market to the grand old days of unregulated futures trading,” writes author Antonia Juhasz in the book Tyranny of Oil. The move mirrored the demands made by Koch’s lobbying coalition, The Energy Group. Gramm, the wife of then-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), leaves the Commodity Futues Trading Commission and a month later joins the board of directors of Enron. – 1997: Koch continues to shift from oil refining and pipelines to financial products. As Koch continues its embrace of selling exotic financial products, the company pioneers the first “weather derivatives,” essentially insurance policies sold to utility companies that bet on future temperature and weather patterns. Although Enron and Koch were the first to develop such financial products, hedge funds and investment banks like Goldman Sachs later expand the weather derivative business globally. – December 12, 2000: Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), after being lobbied by Koch and Enron, creates the infamous “Enron Loophole” vastly deregulating the oil speculation market. On the night of December 12, 2000, Gramm attaches a 262-page amendment to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, which is then attached to an omnibus spending bill that is signed into law by President Clinton before leaving office. The Gramm amendment, which received absolutely no public scrutiny or committee hearings, radically expands and codifies the energy deregulation agenda began by Gramm’s wife during the first Bush administration. The Gramm amendment allows so-called “over-the-counter” energy derivatives not only to be traded outside of regulated exchanges, but for private unregulated exchanges to deal in these sorts of financial products. Thus, massive “dark” oil speculation markets are born, including Enron’s platform for trading energy futures, and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — an online speculation exchange founded by BP, Shell, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other firms. Private e-mails reported by the New York Times reveal that members of The Energy Group, led by lobbyists at Enron but including at least two lobbyists from Koch and several more from Goldman Sachs and Sempra Trading, wrote Gramm’s amendment and pressured him to slip it into the bill. – 2008: Rampant oil speculation spikes prices to unprecedented levels. As academics from the Peterson Institute, the James Baker Institute at Rice University, and others conclude, non-commercial speculators begin to dominate the market, forcing up prices. Although the evidence was abundant that speculators caused the massive price spikes during the summer of 2008, regulators were toothless to act. A bipartisan majority in the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to award powers to the CFTC to oversee rampant oil speculation, but Republican in the Senate — acting with help from Koch lobbyists — killed the bill, called the Energy Markets Emergency Act. – 2009: Koch presentation to ICE boasts that Koch is on the level of transnational big banks and can now be considered one of the world’s top five oil speculators. The presentation, and our analysis, can be found here. Of course, Koch is not the only large corporation engaged in this practice. Large investors, like pension funds, hedge funds, investment banks, and others flocked to the commodities market after the financial crisis of 2008 and the collapse of mortgage-backed securities. – 2010: Koch’s Tea Party front groups and lobbyists fight financial reforms designed to reign in the unregulated energy market. While Americans for Prosperity, as well as other Koch fronts, decry the Wall Street reform bill debated in Congress, Koch lobbied to water-down provisions of the bill related to derivatives. The sweeping Dodd-Frank reform bill contained broad new powers for the CFTC to crack down on excessive oil speculation, while also requiring that derivative are eventually traded on a regulated and open exchange. – 2011: As oil speculation again hits record highs, leading to record high oil prices, Koch’s allies in Congress fight to undermine new reforms and allow unchecked speculation to spiral out of control. As ThinkProgress has reported, oil speculation is currently at a record level, which experts, and even many Republicans now agree, is causing pain at the pump. After a furious lobbying campaign, the CFTC postpones Dodd-Frank mandated regulations on excessive oil speculation, known as position limits. As the CFTC grapples with how to implement these new rules, newly elected Republicans, many with Koch-backing, propose steep cuts to the CFTC to undercut any rules on oil speculation. Charles Koch, the CEO of Koch Industries who is worth a reported $22 billion, likes to call his business an example of something he describes as the “Science of Liberty.” In reality, his company’s deregulation crusade has contributed to rolling blackouts, consolidation and monopolies in financial markets, and economy-wrecking oil price spikes. In comments to the CFTC, the reform-minded nonprofit Better Markets noted that, “the history of these markets is a history of anti-competitive, self-interested, predatory conduct that serves the interest of the exclusive few at the expense of the many and the system as a whole.” After working furiously to unleash oil speculators like Koch and Enron, the Gramm family was rewarded with plum jobs, including spots on corporate boards and placements at speculator-funded think tanks. Wendy Gramm still holds a position at the Koch-funded Mercatus Center at George Mason University, although she hasn’t authored a paper in years. While the Gramm family has faded somewhat from the public eye, their actions have radically changed the global economy. Since the Koch-Gramm-Enron deregulation bonanza, non-commercial oil speculators have flooded the market and increased the price volatility of oil in leaps and bounds, hurting consumers and businesses across the globe while making a small set of oil barons and financial giants very rich. A McClatchy investigation found: “Prior to the 1990s, speculators made up about 30 percent of the futures market. In the latest reporting period, the ratio on May 3 stood at 68 percent speculators to 32 percent users of oil.” The following chart illustrates the dramatic changes in the oil speculation market following the Koch-prescribed deregulation campaign, and how non-commercial speculators have pushed the price of oil higher and higher:  Michael Greenberger, a former top staffer the CFTC, explained to me that a common misperception is that oil companies are only bonafide hedgers, meaning they only participate in the futures market to lock-in prices for delivery of their product. With the exception of ExxonMobil, which has explicitly stated that it does not engage in speculation, all the major oil companies (Shell, BP, Occidental, etc) operate like Wall Street investment banks and use their privileged position in the oil market to make speculative bets on the price of oil. And as the unregulated oil market has grown, investment banks like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have become more like oil companies, buying tankers, pipelines, oil containers, and other physical assets to give them an edge while betting on oil. The Koch contango strategy detailed by ThinkProgress is not limited to Koch Industries either — Shell for instance is known for buying up cheap oil, storing it in tankers, and betting on future prices as they reserve the oil from the market. Tyson Slocum, an expert on oil speculation at Public Citizen, has called Koch one of the worst actors when it comes to oil speculation. Koch, Slocum explained in an interview with ThinkProgress, is unique because of its status as a political powerhouse as well as a speculator with operations all over the world. http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch...ion/?mobile=nc |
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March 2nd, 2012
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#32 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 4,006
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true inflation revealed Inflation is not really rising prices. Inflation is increase in money supply. Inflation (dilution/adulteration) of money causes rising prices. Therefore let us look at money., One of the better is M3, but no longer reported. We can look at M2 (M1, a measure of the money supply; includes currency in circulation plus demand deposits or checking account balances), M2= measure of the money supply; M1 plus net time deposits (other than large certificates of deposit). Here at Economagic: http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/frbH6/t0102 Year-----M2 annual % change 2012----9765------6.6 2007----7104------5.4 2002----5454------7.3 1997----3829------2.5 1992----3383------6.7 1987----2447------6.7 1982----1770------8.7 1977----1165-----10.2 1972----718-------8.3 1967----482-------7.4 1962----340---------- 1962 to 2012 average per year: 6.95% compounded So the last five years are near the 50 year average. To REALLY keep up with inflation one should earn 28.7 times as much as in 1962 (9765 divided by 340). Gold has kept up OK. Parenthetically- Doctor Friedman was calling for rates of adulteration of 3 to 5 percent for a stable price level (The inflation [funny munny] would be soaked up by rises in productivity of around 4%). The actual rate of adulteration (6.95%) is almost 3 percent more than mrs. friedman called for. We got no stable price level. I wonder if there are any rises in productivity since the seventies. Last edited by Rick Ronsavelle; March 2nd, 2012 at 01:18 PM. |
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March 2nd, 2012
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#33 |
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Banned
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Posts: 13,170
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I keep up with inflation by looking in my kitchen cabinet; you know, the one where all the canned goods go.
Back when Clinton was in office, the cupboards were always full; there was stuff in there that had been in there for years...pork & beans, vienna sausages, spam, cans of corn, beans, chilli, stew, corned beef hash; the usual stuff. These days, my kitchen pantry is no where near as well-stocked. There might be some oatmeal or raman noodles in there; but its been looking pretty bare here lately. |
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March 2nd, 2012
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#34 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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Zionist regime official calls for severe sanctions on Iran
"A Zionist regime official has reportedly called on the West to ‘starve Iranians’ through the imposition of severe sanctions... ." "The Zionist regime's Ynet news agency quoted an Israeli regime official without revealing his name on Wednesday, as saying: 'Suffocating sanctions could lead to a grave economic situation in Iran and to a shortage of food. The Western world led by the United States must implement stifling sanctions at this time already, rather than wait or hesitate.'" Analyst holds US responsible for attack on passenger bus in Pakistan "[Pakistan's former ambassador to Afghanistan] on Thursday held American ‘Black Water’ and other US security contractors responsible for an attack on Shia Muslims in Pakistan." "Eighteen people were killed when gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus en route Gilgit from Rawalpindi with 39 passengers on board on February 28." "Most of the victims were pilgrims who were going back to their native areas after visiting holy shrines in Iran." |
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March 2nd, 2012
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#35 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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Russian bank blocks Iran embassy accounts in Moscow
"A Russian state-controlled bank has closed down the accounts of Iranian embassy staff in Moscow in obvious submission to unilateral sanctions imposed by the West against Iran." Historic vote shields Iran against enemies "We are fully aware that Iran has been subjected to many rounds of unilateral sanctions by the US and its little friends in Europe. We have also been subjected to military threats from the US proxy in the region, Israel and the US itself. They’ve rolled in three aircraft carriers into the Persian Gulf and the Iranian response to all of this has been peaceful elections." "And you might think that there is a major disparity there, but peaceful elections have been our first line of defense for 33 years first and foremost. This is people telling the world that they are united; they speak in one voice and that they are willing to go the distance with regards to the ideals of the revolution." "All of their top notch destroyers and aircraft carriers and aircraft cannot match a single day of peaceful elections in Iran." Nation will deal a heavy blow to global hegemony "Ayatollah Khamenei said the Iranian nation will demonstrate its firm will to fight enemies through massive participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections." "Ayatollah Khamenei further noted that the low election turnout of American people in different presidential elections was in no way comparable to that of Iranians both in presidential elections in 2010 and the eighth parliamentary elections." "Saying that massive participation of people in elections will produce a stronger parliament, Islamic Revolution Leader added that sending eligible and honest people to the parliament was as important as people's turnout in the polls." Over 31mn ballots used; voter turnout at 64.6%: Election officials "Iran's election officials announce one hour before the end of the voting time for the ninth parliamentary election that an early ballot count shows a 64.6-percent voter turnout... ." |
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March 3rd, 2012
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#36 | |
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Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,128
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Quote:
 The gas and oil prices are going up because ZOG figured out a way to corner an increasingly larger segment of the world’s production and profits from this activity. There are two types of oil exporting nations today on this planet: The majority floats the US $ and pays bribes to ZOG and the minority is constantly kicked around for the same. You also have to keep in mind that there has never been a single automobile on this planet that run out of fuel if the driver had a piece of plastic or paper to pay for it. It is a fairly complicated but easy to track process. I described this in great detail in a dedicated thread on VNN: US Government makes move for $150/barrel oil by pushing Iran sanctions http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=137253 |
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March 3rd, 2012
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#37 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 851
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Israel and the US are preparing to strike Iran
The article says that "Israel" went from being an object of international criticism concerning its program of genocide against the Palestinians to being perceived as a key element in the process of resolving the most acute international crisis facing the world today. "One must say that the publicity around the Iranian nuclear program has completely erased the Palestinian problem from the global agenda." "Also forgotten is Obama's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict announced last May, which caused Tel-Aviv a lot of problem." "Also forgotten is the issue of Palestine's joining the UN, which almost blew up last year's General Assembly session of the UN." |
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March 3rd, 2012
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#38 |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee
Posts: 8,506
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 The high gas prices we have seen so far is just the beginning. Read the excellent article, Inflation Is A Tax And The Federal Reserve Is Taxing The Living Daylights Out Of Us, that I just posted. |
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March 3rd, 2012
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#39 |
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baппed
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: A:\
Posts: 3,367
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I would say my gas bill is reasonably low. Oh,...you meant to say gasoline?
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March 9th, 2012
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#40 |
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 290
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Wall Street speculation blamed for gas price spike
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1oe8XNZxp Public anger over high gasoline prices is turning to a familiar target - Wall Street. The role of speculative investors in this year's price spike has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, nowhere more so than in Washington. Nearly 70 members of Congress wrote a stern letter Monday to a federal commission that regulates the country's main market for crude oil, demanding that the commission crack down on speculation. President Obama, his energy policies under attack from Republicans, ordered a fresh look at speculation's role in the market on Tuesday. "This is just another example, in my view, of Wall Street playing the casino," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who signed the letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. "Everyone should be outraged that every time they're filling up their tank, they're paying a premium because of speculation." How big is that premium? One of the trading commission's five members estimated last month that speculative investors were adding 56 cents to the price of each gallon of gas. As a result, Honda Civic drivers pay an additional $7.39 per fill-up, said Commissioner Bart Chilton. Owners of the Ford F150 pickup pay an extra $14.56. Speculative investors include hedge funds and investment banks that buy contracts for the future delivery of oil but never intend to take possession of the fuel itself. They buy and sell strictly as a financial investment, and their presence in the market has swelled. Not everyone agrees that the speculative premium exists. A longtime debate The role of big-money investors in the oil markets has been hotly debated for years. Some analysts still argue that speculation has little provable effect on prices for oil and gasoline. The current price run-up, they say, has been driven primarily by the threat of war with Iran and the world's limited spare capacity to pump more oil in case of an emergency. "The fact is that there really are logistic challenges for Europe to replace Iran as a source of oil, and those challenges are going to translate into a higher price," said James Hamilton, an economist at UC San Diego who has studied past oil-price spikes. Congress in 2010 ordered the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to place new limits on the number of contracts each speculator could hold, tucking the requirement into the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform act. The limits would cover not just contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange but those traded on electronic exchanges as well. Those limits were supposed to be in place by Jan. 17, 2011. The commission finally approved the limits in October on a 3-2 vote, but two Wall Street trade associations promptly sued to block the regulation. In addition, the commission can't enforce the limits until other, related elements of Dodd-Frank are in place. Moved too slowly That makes some members of Congress livid. Had the commission moved faster, they argue, the limits could have been enacted by now and may have restrained the run-up in gasoline prices. "That's the point: if they had done their job a year and two months ago, we could have prevented excessive speculation in the market," said Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, who signed Monday's letter to the commission. "I can't tell you exactly what it would mean in terms of how much prices would go down, but they would go down." Again, not everyone agrees. One of the two commissioners who voted against the limits in October said she didn't believe they would control prices, and she worried that the commission would be blamed when lower prices failed to materialize. "Over the last four years, many have argued for position limits with such fervor and zeal, believing them to be a panacea for everything," said Commissioner Jill Sommers, in prepared comments before the vote. Role has grown Even many critics concede that speculative investors play an important role, adding liquidity to the markets for energy commodities. But they used to be a minor part of those markets, which also include such players as airlines, utilities and other companies that use large amounts of fuel. Ten years ago, speculative investors held about 20 percent of the open contracts on the U.S. oil futures market, according to a 2009 study from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Last month, they held 47 percent of the oil futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to an update the trading commission issued Wednesday. While some still debate the influence of speculators, a number of researchers have concluded that they played a part in pushing oil prices to record highs in the past decade. A study last year by an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis concluded that speculation accounted for 15 percent of the increase in oil prices between 2004 and 2008, when oil hit its historic peak above $145 per barrel. Some believe the effect was even larger. WikiLeaks released a U.S. diplomatic cable last year that quoted Saudi Arabia's representative to OPEC's board of governors telling a Florida congressman that speculation "represented approximately $40 of the overall oil price when it was at its height." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1oe8fBoxW Great comment: The role of speculation in setting oil/fuel prices is highly contested. But to claim that there is no proof that speculation increases prices is lunacy. Of course, if you don't bother to look... jon_banquer nicely sums up the logic for speculators raising prices. And the article took note of the following: "Ten years ago, speculative investors held about 20 percent of the open contracts on the U.S. oil futures market ... Last month, they held 47 percent of the oil futures contracts on the [NYMEX]" AND, "A study last year by an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis concluded that speculation accounted for 15 percent of the increase in oil prices between 2004 and 2008, when oil hit its historic peak above $145 per barrel." AND, "a U.S. diplomatic cable last year that quoted Saudi Arabia's representative to OPEC's board of governors telling a Florida congressman that speculation 'represented approximately $40 of the overall oil price when it was at its height.'" From an article on speculation quoting Bloomberg: ""Less than 1 percent, or 3,248 crude futures contracts, was delivered in 2010, compared with the average open interest of 1.34 million contracts during the same period, according to Nymex and data compiled by Bloomberg. There is no physical delivery against Brent oil futures contracts traded on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange. " http://www.econmatters.com/2011/05/s...-high-oil.html "Oil future and option market are called 'paper barrel' since these are only contracts and not actual barrels of oil that are being exchanged. They maintain that the size of future markets for crude oil on the average is one billion barrels a day [BBD] and participants are not only oil companies, but also financial institutions and individuals. "One million contracts of future oil are traded in NYMEX and the size of each contract is one thousand barrels. This is more than 50 times of U.S. oil consumption of just under 20 MBD (Million Barrels per Day) and 12 times of world oil consumption of 85 MBD." http://www.snhu.edu/13801.asp AND, ignoring "paper barrels", one way to look at speculation and trading of futures for actual delivery. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/04/04/o...ollover-cycle/ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...8-a17d1de8e0e3 |
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