6 Myths About Oil Speculators

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Several weeks ago 60 had a segment on this topic and Michael Maters an expert in this field was one intervewee and he says the stats now show that demands was down and supplies up when oil hit 148 a bl. so what was causing this. Well, when there was only 30 billion in oil speculation until hedge fund mgrs saw an unregulated cash cow and started putting their pension plans etc into oil speculation future that shot up to about 400 billion explains it wasn't Supply & Demand that caused this bubble up. So some of you need to take heads out of the sand. GREED Baby GREED drove the price up as GREED knows no boundries.
Nww oil is 34.00 a barrel & gasoline here is $1.69 which is 8 dollars less a barrel then when we were paying a $1.39 a gal. Explain that supply and demand.

Phil Grove of OK 1:04AM February 21, 2009

What do you say now that we are 100 dlrs below last June? You will probably tell me that
the demand has dropped. Yes it has but it didnt drop from one day to the next when on July 15 last year the prices started taking a dive. That was because the speculators had made their money and left the oil futures market. And those who actually own Oil and enter the futures market on and off to hedge their position are not speculaters. Those traders who never own a barrel and just trade papers, they ARE speculators and to me the biggest culprits over the last 2 years were hedgefunds who suddenly discovered that big money was to be made in commodities. They left and now all commodities are way down. Please prove me wrong.

Clausdee of AZ 9:33PM February 15, 2009

The speculation that drove the price of oil to $4 caused innocent people to overspend to heat their homes. It drove up the prices of food and tranportation causing hardship to working families. The cost to simply get to work doubled.
These speculators made profits at the expense of all of society.
They added nothing but effectively stole food and heat from all of us.
If they had ethics, they would not have done this.
What they did undermined confidence in our economy and caused this depression. The housing "bubble" only hurt those who speculated on real estate, or took out home equity loans or moved. The oil speculatively produced "bubble" hurt everyone. The most dependent and most needy were hurt the most.
The government needs to keep opportunists who have no intention of using the commodity out of that market.
The speculators need to be exposed and forced to pay back the money they stoled.
This is an extremely serious injury to our lives. It is criminal. Playing semantics to defuse this situation is irresponsible.

Ed Karl of NY 9:37PM February 05, 2009

The speculation that drove the price of oil to $4 caused innocent people to overspend to heat their homes. It drove up the prices of food and tranportation causing hardship to working families. The cost to simply get to work doubled.
These speculators made profits at the expense of all of society.
They added nothing but effectively stole food and heat from all of us.
If they had ethics, they would not have done this.
What they did undermined confidence in our economy and caused this depression. The housing "bubble" only hurt those who speculated on real estate, or took out home equity loans or moved. The oil speculatively produced "bubble" hurt everyone. The most dependent and most needy were hurt the most.
The government needs to keep opportunists who have no intention of using the commodity out of that market.
The speculators need to be exposed and forced to pay back the money they stoled.
This is an extremely serious injury to our lives. It is criminal. Playing semantics to defuse this situation is irresponsible.

Ed Karl of NY 9:36PM February 05, 2009

I think anyone who has watched oil on wallstreet for the past six months and still believes speculators were not responsible for the $4 gas, then I have some Ocean Front property I would like to sell really cheap!

Dan Moore of MD 2:41PM January 16, 2009

I think it's been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that your article is completely full of it. The Oil Bubble that you claimed didn't exist, has burst and oil is now much cheaper.
Why? Becuase the "sharks" knew they were going to be investigated.
You my friend, are an idiot.

bill of NY 1:23PM January 15, 2009

resign now. You have no idea. It was ALL manipulation.

Ken of TX 10:35PM January 08, 2009

I like the fools who are laughing and claiming an oil bubble burst. We'll just see where oil is in a year, particularly as Asian economies come back on line. Give me a break, as soon as global recession turns around, so will the price of oil, folks. Wise up.

Jason of MI 11:47AM December 17, 2008