Tuesday - June 24, 2008

Don’t be such a cruel tease!

Yeah, IF we could control the entire speculation market. World-wide. Except that ... we can’t! Doing so is the kind of job the UN was supposed to be put in place to do. Oh God, help me, I’m falling off my chair laughing at the thought of that one!

Near-record oil prices could quickly fall by half if Congress were to rein in speculators, according to testimony Monday from a hedge fund manager and oil company adviser on Capitol Hill.

Michael Masters, of Masters Capital Management, told a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that - with greater regulation - oil prices could drop to $65 or $70 a barrel within about 30 days.

“That’s half of where prices are today, and gas prices would reflect that,” he said.

Roger Diwan, an adviser to oil companies at Washington, D.C.-based PFC Energy, agreed that regulation could lead to a drop in prices. He said it would take no more than 30 days for speculation in the oil market to decrease and gas prices to fall.

The topic of energy speculation is front and center on Capitol Hill this week. A Senate hearing is scheduled for Tuesday and another House panel examination is set for Thursday.

Last Friday, three Democratic House members including Stupak introduced a bill attempting to better regulate the oil markets.  To underline his case, Stupak said speculators now control 71% of oil on the market. That means only 29% control the physical oil being traded, down from 61% eight years ago. He blamed loosely regulated trading markets with numerous loopholes for the ease that traders have to buy and sell crude.

“We can eliminate a major avenue that traders use to avoid oversight,” Stupak said Friday. “It’s time for Congress to close the Enron loophole and lower our gas and diesel prices by 50%.”

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)—Close loopholes on foreign oil trading. Limit hedge funds from pouring money into the market. End oil speculation altogether.

Congress is vowing to take actions that it believes will reverse runaway crude and gasoline prices. Oil rose above $136 a barrel on Monday - more than double what it cost a year ago - and gas hovered around $4.07 a gallon.

Lawmakers have introduced nine different bills on speculation - not to mention many more that tackle other causes of escalating fuel and oil prices. Several of the speculation measures have bipartisan support. No fewer than four separate hearings have been scheduled for this week, including a House hearing held Monday exploring foreign trade regulation.

Go and read them all if you’d like. Some make some sense, at least one is totally unworkable. And all of them require all the other trading nations to play along. Like I said, this is a job for the UN. ( which means that nothing will ever happen )

Posted by Drew458     on 06/24/2008 at 01:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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