Obama Should Get Behind This Move Against The Oil Speculators

[Better Believe It]

Soon.

Like Today!

Airline CEO's Appeal For Help Against Wall Street Oil Speculators!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/25626817#256268...

They Have Formed A "Stop Oil Speculation Now" Coalition With Labor Unions!

http://www.stopoilspeculationnow.com /




Out of control oil speculation is a major, if not the major, cause of rising oil prices.

Like the Stop Oil Speculation Now Coalition says: "Addressing Skyrocketing Oil Prices by Restoring Fair and Open Energy Markets
Every time you buy products such as food or gas, you are impacted by unregulated, secretive and often foreign commodities futures markets. Speculators in these markets are increasingly buying and selling commodities such as oil to sell again, rather than to use. As largely unregulated speculators pocket billions of dollars at your expense, the price of commodities has increased out of proportion to marketplace demands."

To stop this we need to build a powerful movement against the Wall Street speculators.

Obama can lead it .... if he wants to.

He could certainly help to build it.

The time to act is now.

[DJ13]

1. Best post I never saw

(Your link does not go to a specific post)

[Better Believe It]

2. Deleted

Deleted

[Better Believe It]

3. I Believe I Just Fixed The Mess

No link required now.

[Better Believe It]

4. Well, Perhaps Not

There doesn't seem to be any interest whatsoever in this important development.

I think this has potential.

Am I the only one?

Maybe it's the labor connection or the attack on Wall Street speculators. Perhaps a bit too "radical"?

I don't get it .... the lack of interest and even excitement.

Wake up people!

[Bjorn Against]

27. I think the reason there is a lack of interest is that people don't know about the issue...

Once people learn of the issue however virtually everyone will want the Enron loophole closed. If Obama were to make this a key focus of his campaign people would start paying attention and interest would skyrocket.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Democrats have introduced several bills in Congress

to re-regulate oil speculation and close the Enron loophole. At http://capwiz.com/sosnow/issues/bills/ they list all the bills and their sponsors. What's interesting is only a very few Republicans are supporting these bills, except for one in the House which would authorize a "study" of oil speculation (and no doubt the "study" would conclude there is no problem and no need to regulate speculation). The Democrats who are sponsoring the anti-speculation legislation need our support.

The coalition behind this web site is mostly airlines, but it also includes other transportation organizations and a couple of major unions, ALPA and the Teamsters.

[Better Believe It]

7. Thank You For The Link: Stop The Oil Speculators!

Let's begin Senate and House hearings on the strongest bills and in that way build public support for ending the destructive actions of the Wall Street oil speculators!

If anyone here has close contact with Obama and/or his key political advisors please being this to their attention and get them moving on it big time!

This should become a major campaign issue.

Stop The Oil Speculators!

How would McCain do in opposing such a move?

Terrible.

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Oil speculators should be shot

Then the replacement lot should be shot even more, in all the right places.

Sorry, but that's been my view for several years, the only time I've ever felt that way, once I studied the issue and realized they were responsible for the ludicrous price hikes, impacting everyone and everything.

[Better Believe It]

8. Let's Start By Making Their Activity Illegal

That sounds like a sensible first step.

Don't know how much broad support we could get behind a "Shoot The Speculators" coalition.

Sounds a bit extreme to me.

:)

So let's just stop them from driving up prices with their wild speculation.

And if they violate new anti-speculation laws we can put the cuffs on them!

Now that's the kind of "law and order" we can believe in!

[wishlist]

9. Needs to point out oil cos aren't drilling 80% of oil leases they already have

Also, Obama needs to bring out points in Joe Biden's great article this week about how the Repubs are lying to us that allowing more drilling would solve the oil crisis, since oil companies have only been drilling in 20% of the 7000 areas they already have permission to drill and that whatever small amounts we could find domestically are a small percentage that would take years to obtain and would likely not change world market which determines the cost and is affected by foreign markets including Opec that can control their supply- 75% is foreign oil.


http://biden.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=E20B32D9-D252-4E61-BA4A-BAD79F2A76FE

[World Citizen]

28. I saw Obama mention that in a speech this week

But mentioning isn't enough. It needs to be pumped across the nation. People actually believe that Schumer and ANWR are the causes for recession and for high gas prices. Where are the surrogates that should be pounding this stuff. We have to compete with the airplay of Limpaw and Oreally.

[Seen the light]

10. This should become the hallmark of his energy policy

Or at least one of its main planks in the platform. I know it sort of is, but he really needs to harp on this every single day.

[Better Believe It]

11. Front And Center!

I just sent a message to Obama's campaign committee proposing this.

I couldn't find any mention of controlling oil speculation in the Energy & Environment issues section of his website.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. It's a bad idea, and it will not work.

First: any move to end speculation on American markets (most specifically, the New York Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange) will have zero effect on foreign markets (the International Petroleum Exchange in London, for instance). Those with the financial resources and wherewithal to do so will engage in speculation on foreign exchanges.

Second: the price of oil is set on international markets, and the increase in price is largely demand-driven, not speculative. Since 1995, global demand for oil has increased by nearly twenty million barrels a day (from a 1995 level of about 67M bbl/day); most of that growth is fuelled by the economic expansions of India and China. Global production of oil is in the range of c. 84-85M bbl/day; global DEMAND for oil is in the same range. There is almost no margin for overhead, and excess production capacity is limited.

Third: The United States consumes twenty million barrels of oil a day, whilst producing only eight million or so of those. More than half of our ration of petroleum must be imported. I fail to see how any action by the US Congress will effect a reduction in price of a commodity which is priced on world markets and of which the US is a net importer.

[Better Believe It]

13. Can You Refute The Airline & Trucking Industry Claims About Speculation?

I would expect that a serious effort to stop the wild speculation which threatens ALL nations would be international in scope. If the United States were to lead on this, that could encourage other ruling governments to quickly follow suit. It's a world-wide crisis which requires world-wide action by the major capitalist nations. The major transportation companies have not claimed that it is only market speculation that is fueling the oil increases. It certainly is a major or the major reason. Do you think otherwise?

You haven't provided any evidence to back up your assertion that supply and demand is largely responsible for oil price increases. There is no serious oil shortage that I'm aware of, even though George W. Bush makes that false claim to justify his off-shore, ANWR and other drilling proposals.

The airline and trucking industry are blaming the Wall Street oil speculators. Do you have information they don't have or understand something they don't? Here's what the leaders of capital in transportation have to say at their website:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Problem
What is causing the high price of fuel?

The oil price bubble is unfairly taxing American families and restricting our nation’s economic potential. While everyone is aware that supply and demand constraints contribute to price increases, there’s another force at work that, like gravity, is invisible yet powerful. This force is rampant speculation.

Every time you buy products such as food or gas, you are impacted by unregulated, secretive and often foreign commodities futures markets. Speculators in these markets are increasingly buying and selling commodities such as oil to sell again, rather than to use. As largely unregulated speculators pocket billions of dollars at your expense, the price of commodities has increased out of proportion to marketplace demands.

As speculators continue to dominate the market, the volume of oil traded “on paper” has been as high as 22 times greater than the volume of oil consumed. As prices rise, institutional investors have become active traders, turning commodities into just another asset class. This has caused severe market imbalance and upset the natural relationship between supply and demand. As a result, legitimate customers such as trucking companies, airlines, and consumers have been forced to purchase oil at unnecessarily higher prices. This has dramatically raised costs, resulting in needlessly high prices for American consumers and businesses.

How do they get away with that?

Over the last 20 years, commodities markets have become increasingly less regulated. Today, as many as 90 percent of all commodities trades occur outside of the traditional marketplace exchanges. In these so-called “Swaps trades”, parties secretly buy and sell commodities with absolutely no one watching. This means speculators can manipulate oil prices and corner the market without anyone knowing.

In addition, other loopholes exist allowing increasingly sophisticated speculators to take advantage of consumers. For example, in 2000 Enron lobbied policy makers to permit some U.S. commodities exchanges to operate without normal oversight. This has allowed speculators to dodge public disclosure rules that would normally limit the number of trades an investor can make.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. Actually, I have provided evidence.

Oil production: c. 84-85M bbl/day. Demand: c. 84.5M bbl/day. Do the math. Demand levels at or nearing supply levels, no overhead for increased production, greatly increased competition for oil on world markets = increases in price. This is very simple, and anyone with a basic understanding of economics and the mechanics of supply, demand and market pricing ought not to require a detailed explanation.

[Better Believe It]

16. AAhhhh The Old Supply And Demand Theory

Sorry.

That has little or nothing to do with the jackup in oil prices.

The oil companies and Bush might like us to believe that, but it just ain't so!

You haven't provided the slightest shred of evidence to back up your claim that wild speculation in oil futures have nothing to do with high oil prices.

And I haven't read any credible reports in ANY media about the great gas and oil shortage you suggest we are experiencing.

Has everyone missed that but you?

Right now supply is equal to demand (by your own admission) and has been for several years.

Can production be increased in the Middle East, the United States and other nations if a genuine shortage should occur?

Yes.

I need to get some sleep now but if you have any hard evidence to back up your claim of an oil shortage feel free to present the info and your links.

Take care.

[Better Believe It]

20. No Oil Shortage Proof At This Link

If you'd like more information demonstrating that there is no shortage of oil and gas here it is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3606939

[Spider Jerusalem]

22. I never said there was a *shortage*.

Merely that we are experiencing supply constraints due to elevated demand levels and price increases on an openly traded, limited commodity. There needn't be a shortage for increased demand and market competition to drive higher prices.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

25. God bless you for trying to make sense

I don't get into the speculation thing with folks here... if someone want to believe it, they'll believe it, even though it's on par with the healing power of magnets.

You are correct that it is impossible for speculation to add more than a few percent to oil. It is too widely traded, too widely produced, and too universally demanded.

Speculators bet oil was going to go up because it was obvious that oil was going to go up. And they were right. Blaming their bets for the spot price is like blaming the rooster for the dawn.

And every single trade is two-sided. It would make as much sense to blame the people who wouldn't sell out cheaper to the "speculators"

This is just like the people who wanted to out-law short-selling after 9/11. Real "villagers with pitch-forks" stuff.

If eliminating paper transactions in oil is such a good idea, let's try it with corn. Oh, that's right... we can't, because everyone would starve.

To flesh out your point a bit:

There is no shortage at $140/barrel.

There would be dire shortages of oil at $90/barrel.

If everyone had the chance to visit a Russian grocery store during the 1970s-1980s this stuff would be pretty basic. Incredibly low price-tags on food that wasn't there.

[AllentownJake]

15. It isn't all their fault

They are within the law with what they are doing. The great Phil Gramm inserted a loop hole that allows them to buy on 5% margin in contrast for stocks you can only trade on 50% margin. So in the commodities market you only have to front 5% of the cash to make a bet. These people are gamblers and can literally lose their shirt overnight. What their doing is no different than card counters when card counting was legal before there was 6 decks in black jack. Make people have 50% or more upfront for their bets and you'll see their influence decrease...drastically. Gas will still be expensive because China and India will still buy as much as they can get their hands on subsidized by exports to the USA

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. It may very well be a good idea to restrain investment speculation in general, But this would

would requie moving in a 180 degrees opposite direction of the particular form of capitalism that has become the consensus orthodoxy of both political parties and of most political parties around the world for the past couple of decades.

And frankly,speculation only sustains when the fundamentals of supply and demand are real.

Real estate speculation had indeed pushed housing prices into the stratosphere until finally it reached a long over due point where it had priced itself out of the market. A nice little family home on the Northern Californian coast that would have cost $20,000 in 1970 is even now with the long over due housing crunch selling at $800,000 plus. The speculation did indeed push it into this unreal world. But it could only do so because there were a lot more people who wanted to buy a nice little family home on the Northern California coast then there were such houses available for sale. And thus speculation cold drive prices up until such a point to where there were no longer a sufficient body of people who wanted to buy such homes and willing to pay such prices.

Housing is even more of a necessity that gasoline for a private car. But when a shortage really does exist and people are willing to pay the price, speculation is irresistibly attracted until such a point people are no longer willing to pay the price.

It may very well be a good idea to change the entire approach of unrestrained speculative capitalism. But this would require a reversal of an entire worldview supported by both leading political parties for the past three decades. It would require a whole new international consensus on an approach to capitalism in general.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. I think we should try it to see if it brings down oil prices

I don't believe we should end oil speculation but we should regulate it. Let's see if it works, since there's pro and con about the size of its role in the price of oil. Increasing the size of the margins required might be a good start. Let's stop speculating about speculation and conduct an actual empirical experiment.

[Better Believe It]

19. For The Weekend Crew

[4dsc]

21. Obama will not challenge corporate interest!!

I posted a great article before on why Obama will not challenge the corporatist that control this country.. I see my thread was locked but I hope it offered some insight on the democratic party nominee..

Obama has aligned himself with the centralist/rightist of the democratic party and has forgotten who helped him win the nomination..

[Orsino]

23. He must, if he is to become a liberal.

Let's keep agitating, and help him find that courage.

[Marie26]

24. Read up on free-market economics

which Obama adheres to. He won't.

[Bjorn Against]

26. Yes, he needs to go after this hard.

The Enron loophole was written by Phil Gramm, John McCain's chief economic adviser. Not only can Obama put a concrete plan to lower gas prices in place by taking this position, but he can rake McCain over the coals with it as well. This is an issue that could benefit both Obama and the American people greatly, he should make this a primary focus of his campaign.

[AzDar]

29. Ayup.

[Life Long Dem]

30. Obama urges reins on oil speculators

Associated Press - June 22, 2008 7:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama says he would crackdown on oil speculators as part of his energy plan.

He thinks oil speculation is largely to blame for $135-a-barrel crude. And Obama says a loophole inserted into a bill 8 years ago by a Republican who's now a John McCain adviser is behind it.

Obama says his plan would close that loophole by requiring that U.S. energy futures be traded on regulated exchanges. Currently, they're outside federal regulation. Congress has already acted to close the loophole, but Obama says his plan goes further.

Obama's campaign says former Texas Senator Phil Gramm was behind the loophole, which he disputes. Gramm is a McCain co-chairman and economic adviser. A McCain spokesman says McCain has supported closing the loophole.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=8538323&nav=menu40_12_5_1

[Better Believe It]

31. It's Time For Obama & Democratic Party To Lead On This Issue

I'm glad Obama came out against speculation but I'm afraid that a month old news release is not going to accomplish much of anything.

Obama needs to call a major news conference on this issue.

At the news conference Obama could call upon Congress to begin holding immediate "emergency hearings" on the strongest and most effective anti-speculation bills that are in the hopper.

Obama could propose, as the de facto leader of the Democratic Party, quick action by Congress to pass such legislation.

And I bet more than a few CEO's (especially from the airline & trucking industries), labor union leaders and consumer organization officers would join Obama at such a news conference.

This is something that cannot and should not wait until after the Presidential action.

It must be done now.

Let Bush/McCain oppose regulating the oil speculators who "trade in oil" but don't buy any of it.

Most people think the Congress led by Democrats is a "do nothing" Congress that is sitting on their hands while oil speculators drive up prices and the oil companies engage in unheard profiting from this speculation.

Congress together with Obama can prove them wrong .... or right.

Obama has the issue that can ignite massive support among ordinary working class and middle class people.

Stop the oil speculators!

Can we count on Obama's support or will an old news release be sufficient in the minds of his economic and political advisors?

Will "Stop The Oil Speculators" be a major campaign theme at the mass nomination rally?

Will this be a major theme of the campaign?

Will this be the issue that buries McCain?

It can be.

Now it's up to Obama.

Lead on this issue or continue drifting to the center (center of what?) in order to pick up some McCain votes.

[Life Long Dem]

32. This old news release means he didn't start to discuss this yesterday.

"Can we count on Obama's support", you ask. Of course we can because Obama told us where he stood on this issue a month ago. And now people are starting to come around.

Same thing with the foreclosure crisis. Obama was looking for help from congress a year before they started to talk about the crisis. Obama is on top of things. Lets not look for fault in the wrong places.