American Airlines praised Congress for focusing on oil-market speculation and the need to lower skyrocketing oil prices, which are having an adverse impact on the airline industry.
The commercial airline applauded Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chaired a hearing to examine oil market speculation.
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/storie鈥?/a>
More than 30 percent, experts say, exchanged in so-called ';dark markets,'; the exact size and scope unknown to U.S. regulators.
';If you can trade out of the sight of U.S. regulators, you can manipulate these markets,'; said Michael Greenberger, a former top staffer at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, which regulates the trading of commodities like oil in this country.
He recently told Congress that speculation is placing a huge premium on the price of oil.
';How much per barrel?'; Keteyian asked.
';Well, there have been various estimates - anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent,'; Greenberger said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/1鈥?/a>
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman on Wednesday unveiled three draft legislative proposals aimed at limiting speculation in crude oil futures markets, including one that would ban participation by big institutional investors.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Lieberman chairs, will hold a hearing on the bills on June 24. Walter Lukken, acting chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is expected to attend.
One proposal would ban pension funds and institutional investors with more than $500 million in assets from futures markets. Another would set position limits on investment banks like Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) that offer ';swap'; deals as middle-man between two parties that want to take offsetting oil market positions.
The third proposal would force the CFTC to confront speculation that causes prices to rise ';beyond levels justified by the market fundamentals.';
Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said they want to propose formal legislation after the July 4th congressional recess that Congress can weigh before the end of the year.
U.S. regulators are feeling heat to limit speculation in commodities markets, which U.S. lawmakers see as a prime mover behind the surge of nearly 40 percent in crude oil prices since January to record highs near $140 a barrel.
';A certain amount of speculation in this market helps the physical traders but the speculators are now dominating the commodities markets,'; Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said at a press conference.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idU鈥?/a>Can any dem prove that oil prices are NOT determined by supply and demand?
Here is an interesting fact for you:
In the last year overall US gas consumption has decreased by 3% (that means less gas used, more supply available)
In that same time frame the price of gas at the pump has increased by about 35%.
The oil and gas market is not ruled by supply and demand.
high oil prices are the result of speculation because the margins are super low for oil compared to stocks
the end
hugs!
I'm a dem, and I believe oil prices are controlled by 3 things:
Supply
Demand
Profit!
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