Congress Turns on Speculators in Oil Bubble

Out-of-control traders may be driving up oil, food costs, pols say

(NEWSER) - Congress is blaming rampant commodity speculation for rocketing gas and food prices, and berating regulators for letting it happen, the New York Times reports. Unless watchdog groups like the Commodities Futures Trading Commision crack down, Carl Levin says, "we don’t have a cop on the beat.." Joe Lieberman has even introduced a bill to ban institutional investors from commodity markets. More»

Passes inflation-adjusted all-time peak

(NEWSER) - As oil soared to nearly $104 a barrel today, it set an all-time, inflation-adjusted record, surpassing even the height of the oil crises of the '70s and '80s, the New York Times reports. Futures touched $103.95 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, beating out the April 1980 record of $39.50 a barrel, or $103.76 adjusted for inflation. More»

Commodity Commission to hold hearings on 'purely financial' energy futures trading

(NEWSER) - Federal regulators may impose new limits on the amount of energy-futures contracts that speculators can buy, the New York Times reports, an attempt to curb severe price fluctuations in commodities like oil and natural gas. Oil prices swung from $145 per barrel last summer to $33 in December, movement some attribute to purely financial investors who bet on the direction of price movements. More»

(AP) - Oil prices plummeted to a one-year low below $83 a barrel today in European trading as investor fears of a severe global economic downturn sparked a panicked sell-off. "The whole market has lost confidence in everything," said one commodities strategist. "Everyone is worried about global growth, and oil is the front line commodity for that. There's just a lot of panic and fear." More»

Traders take blame for high oil prices, but global demand is the real culprit

(NEWSER) - Politicians are blaming high oil prices on an old scapegoat: speculators, writes Dean Barnett in the Weekly Standard. But if speculators were hoarding oil, it would be stockpiled, and inventories would soar. Instead, inventories remain constant. This is obvious "to anyone who took an introductory economics class," Barnett writes. "Demand is relatively high. That means higher prices." More»