Elena predicts 5 dollar per-gallon gas in 2011. Blames the traders.

[elehhhhna]

Not the oil companies -- the middleman traders that jacked us up last time.

I work in the periphery of oil & gas exploration and production now. I talk (listen) to a wide and deep group of people in the industry, and 'tho I'm no expert, they are! They generally all acknowledge that the trading companies jacked us last time around and they're doing it agian, starting now.

[Arctic Dave]

1. Agreed. I have worked in the oilfields for eighteen years

and am the third generation that has worked in them. There was absolutely no rational reason for oil to be at 140.00 dollars except for market munipulation. Period.

I am seeing all the new(old) talking points about asia, dems and enviromentalist being tossed around but nothing about speculators and price bubbles.

[Iggo]

2. Same as last time.

Except if they go for the slow boil this time, maybe it'll stick.

[spanone]

3. i've recently heard this reported in the media...who is feeding them this story?

breaking the ice for price increases?

[kestrel91316]

4. Yeah, I noticed a 10% jump in prices during the week I was away on vacation.

Now it doesn't affect me directly since I am still fairly happily car-free. But the last time gas jumped, when it hit $4, it caused the real estate market in outlying areas to collapse and food prices to skyrocket. My community can't take more real estate crashing, and I personally can't take higher food prices.