One need only pick out a loser in the energy speculation business to illustrate the fact that speculative greed is not responsible for higher energy prices, and prices may actually track oil scarcity by investors with an incentive to be more knowledgeable about such scarcity than a mere pandering politician like U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) — (or lose their butts).
One gets the feeling that Bob Etheridge knows about as much about futures markets as I know about needlepoint. America is in need of sustained relief from these prices, Bob. Do us a favor and sit this one out. "You’re out of your element."
(Rep. Etheridge, like most politicians on the left, has three cards in his deck: 1) more resources! (higher taxes); 2) more regulation! (government control); 3) more studies! (buck passing). Can’t we do better than this nonsense?)
-Max Borders
Speaking of “more studies!” – check this out from those big oil apologists at the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/business/23commodities.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
“The preliminary study concluded that the rise in oil prices over the last five years was “largely due” to fundamental factors like rapidly rising consumption and sluggish growth in energy supplies worldwide.”
I mean, seriously, how many more task forces, commissions, show trials, and studies do taxpayers need to finance in order to keep getting the same conclusion: prices are determined by – gasp! – supply and demand. It would be so much cheaper to mandate that each elected official attend an Econ 101 class so the public would be spared such embarrassing dog-and-pony shows.