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Oil Speculation Driving Up Gas Prices

So I'm paying more money at the pump because of "speculation"? I wonder where else in my life that I have to pay for "speculation"...
 
I'm no economics guru but I feel that collapses like the recent financial meltdown are natural mechanisms by which the free market 'punishes' or corrects unsustainable practices such as this.

Government bailouts that put off these corrections only serve to prop up economies up for an even greater fall.
 
^^ that's why we don't have a true free market economy. The government has too much say in it. We've lost faith in the ability for a free market economy to fix itself.
 
Aggie12 said:
^^ that's why we don't have a true free market economy. The government has too much say in it. We've lost faith in the ability for a free market economy to fix itself.
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LOL. Aside from the basic contradiction ...

The SEC delegated much of it's authority to so-called "self-regulatory organizations" long ago.

"Two powerful senators yesterday questioned Wall Street's ability to police itself, saying that inherent conflicts of interest require a review of decades-old federal policy that gives the securities industry frontline responsibility for regulating its members.

"Those conflicts need to be exposed," said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). "And they need to be gotten rid of."

FYI This article dates from 2003 and Republican Alabama Senator Shelby has a conservative rating of 96.
 
Speculators charged with manipulating oil market

"A group of financial speculators made $50 million by manipulating the price of oil in 2008

...

 "The scheme artificially increased the price of crude oil physical, derivatives and other oil products in the United States and elsewhere," the CFTC said in its charging document.

The manipulation involved first pushing up the price of futures contracts, then betting against them
 
RiverOfIce said:
In order to protect the people from companies and companies from each other you need government regulation.
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But does that not lead to the present situation where companies, knowing how much the government can impact them through regulation, pour billions into lobbying, bribes and donations in order to get favourable regulation?

The people end up losing anyway and probably lose a lot more.
 
Sak01 said:
But does that not lead to the present situation where companies, knowing how much the government can impact them through regulation, pour billions into lobbying, bribes and donations in order to get favourable regulation?

The people end up losing anyway and probably lose a lot more.
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Politicians, in their stampede to corporate money, have abandoned the very principles and purposes of the US Constitution, and those giving them money are funding the dismantlement of it.

The most ironic thing is that the conservatives, libertarians and teabaggers who are busy working to dismantle these constitutional protections are screaming about the Founder's intent.

Money is power, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
 
noah way said:
Politicians, in their stampede to corporate money, have abandoned the very principles and purposes of the US Constitution, and those giving them money are funding the dismantlement of it.
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But that's what I mean. When you give government so much power to regulate, doesn't that just motivate corporations to try to influence government? And this could arguably be worse than the situation where government doesn't regulate at all.
 
Sak01 said:
But does that not lead to the present situation where companies, knowing how much the government can impact them through regulation, pour billions into lobbying, bribes and donations in order to get favourable regulation?

The people end up losing anyway and probably lose a lot more.
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its not just corps, its special interest in general.
EX. if it were only companies oil companies would be able to drill anyplace
special interest is keeping them from doing so
 
mdram said:
its not just corps, its special interest in general.
EX. if it were only companies oil companies would be able to drill anyplace
special interest is keeping them from doing so
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Either way, money talks. Those who spends most, win. Or at the very least, they get the better result.
 
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