That was as recently as last May.
Oil Speculators have a LOT to say about what a gallon of gasoline ends up really costing us at the pump, above and beyond the actual economics of "supply and demand" ...
Even Oil Companies Know That Oil Prices Are Rigged
Jason Raznick, Contributor -- Forbes -- 05/13/2011
In a surprise statement, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson told the Senate Finance Committee that oil prices did not currently reflect supply and demand.
“When we look at it, it’s going to be somewhere in the $60 to $70 range if you said: ‘If I had access to the next marketable [marginal] barrel, what would it cost?’”
Since the price of oil barrels is currently over $100, it is clear that something beyond the laws of supply and demand is driving the high price of oil, and with it, the high price of gasoline. Well, if it isn’t supply or demand that is driving the price of oil up so high, there’s really only one other culprit: oil speculators.
[...]
What, exactly, are oil speculators? They are social parasites, gamblers who produce absolutely nothing of value. They bet on the price of a barrel of oil, and use their low margin requirements and influence in the market to drive the price of commodities higher and higher. They then feed off each other, like lemmings off a cliff, speculating and pushing the market higher. When the market seems prime for a dip, they switch their bets. This drives the price back down some, allowing them to magically make money on both sides of the transaction.
[...]
Parasite -- Definition, Bing.com
1. organism living on another: a plant or animal that lives on or in another, usually larger, host organism in a way that harms or is of no advantage to the host
2. scrounger: somebody who exploits others without doing anything in return
{ Mid-16th century. Via Latin < Greek parasitos "somebody who eats from another's table" ...> }
crude oil price
Friday, March 9, 2012: NYMEX West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil for April delivery closed up $0.82 at $107.40 per barrel.
How much of that $100+ price is based on the
actual factors of supply and demand? ... you know, like on
the FREE Markets of actual consumers and actual producers?
Under Questioning by Cantwell, Exxon CEO Estimates Oil Should Cost $60-70 Per Barrel
link to video
Uploaded by SenatorCantwell on May 12, 2011
On May 12, 2011, when questioned by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson said that oil should cost between $60 and $70 per barrel, if the price of oil were based on supply and demand fundamentals. Oil was trading at $98 per barrel on Thursday morning, after inexplicitly plunging 5.5 percent yesterday.
For more information: cantwell.senate.gov
So that's
roughly 30-40% of the price of a barrel oil, which is above and beyond what "supply and demand"
would have priced it at that week -- IF the Oil Speculators were NOT in the picture. So says the Exxon Mobil Chairman, in his testimony in the Senate Hearing last year.
That's a 30-40% "finders fee," I guess. They find the Time and Capital, We find the extra Fees ... to make our obligatory daily commutes.
But wait other Oil Futures market-players have calculated this speculative premium too, but instead on a commodity supply-cornering basis ...
Goldman Sachs says speculation behind much of recent oil price rise, tells clients to “sell”
by Joe Romm, ClimateProgress, thinkprogress.org -- Apr 13, 2011
[...]
Exactly how much speculation is driving up oil prices remains contentious:
Goldman estimated in a research note on March 21 that every million barrels of oil held by speculators contributed to an 8 to 10 cent per barrel rise in the oil price.
Using Goldman’s 8- to 10-cent estimates and data on speculators’ positions from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Reuters calculated that as of last Tuesday, the total speculative premium in U.S. crude oil was between $21.40 and $26.75 a barrel, or about a fifth of last Tuesday’s price. [...]
Goldman Sachs disputed the Reuters calculation on speculative premium.
[...]
What can stop the '
Opportunistic Behavior' of the Oil Speculators, trading in opaque, over-leveraged markets?
Who has the ability and the responsibility to reign in these gamblers, who's lone purpose is, to profit off the misery of others?
Oil Speculators Must Be Stopped and the CFTC “Needs to Obey the Law”: Sen. Bernie Sanders
by Morgan Korn, Daily Ticker, finance.yahoo.com -- Mar 7, 2012
[...]
The CFTC was given authority in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to impose position caps on oil traders beginning in January 2011. These limits have not yet been implemented by the CFTC. In an interview Wednesday with The Daily Ticker, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says the CFTC doesn't "have the will" to enact these limits and "needs to obey the law."
"What we need to do is…limit the amount of oil any one company can control on the oil futures market," says Sanders, who has long advocated limits on speculation. "The function of these speculators is not to use oil but to make profits from speculation, drive prices up and sell."
[...]
-- The St. Louis Federal Reserve has also recommended that the CFTC do more to prevent oil speculators from driving up the price of oil. Fed officials studied the effect of oil traders on the price oil over five years and determined that "speculation contributed to around 15 percent to oil prices increases."
-- CFTC Chair Gary Gensler declared last year that "huge inflows of speculative money create a self-fulfilling prophecy that drives up commodity prices."
Even CFTC Chairman concedes 'speculative money drives up prices' --
SO why isn't more being done about it?
It seems his regulatory interests are divided between those of the Host, and those of the Hostee's ... could be.
Dems blame Wall Street for high gas prices, urge CFTC action
by Ben Geman, thehill.com -- 03/05/12
[...]
The March 5 letter to the CFTC bashes the regulators for failure to implement rules finalized last October that establish “position limits” on the amount of futures and swaps contracts for oil and other commodities that traders may hold.
The limits are required under the sweeping 2010 Wall Street reform law. “As the cost for American people to fill their gas tanks continues to skyrocket, the CFTC continues to drag its feet on imposing strict speculation limits to eliminate, prevent or diminish excessive oil speculation as required by the Dodd-Frank Act,” the letter states.
Yet the "One Percent Powers that Be" are not about to go silently into that dark night.
Not unless there is a way for them
to have their 'Free Lunch' there, too.
It seems that social parasites, really don't like to be "host-less" -- not if they can help it, that is.
Wall Street fights rule limiting oil speculation
by Jennifer Liberto, CNNMoneyMarkets -- Feb 27, 2012
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Wall Street is pushing to stop a new rule that would crack down on speculation in the energy markets, which many blame for contributing to the spike in gas prices.
The new rule -- part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to reform Wall Street -- would set limits on how much traders can buy, preventing firms from grabbing large chunks of the energy market.
But those limits may not be set anytime soon. Nearly two years after the new law, the rule has yet to be fully implemented. And on Monday, two Wall Street trade groups asked a federal judge in Washington to delay or block the rule.
[...]
So far those "Price-chasing" buggers have faced very little real resistance ... to discourage their "blood-letting" activities.
Parasite vaccine
medical-answers.org
Malaria vaccines are an area of intensive research. However, there is no effective vaccine that has been introduced into clinical practice.
And if the opportunity is there to be "tapped" ... well they're really not shy about jumping on it.
They Demand, We Supply.
That's just the Wall Street way ...
Image Source: Malaria is transmitted to humans through mosquitoes. Photo by the World Health Organization.
BBBIZZZZZZ, BBBIZZZZZZ ...... Where'd they hide that Deep Woods Off, anyways?