GASOLINE GOING UP AGAIN - Public Victims Of Financial Speculation

(05/14/2009)

By Bob Weaver The price of gasoline is rising again, with oil going up about 2% justifying a 10% hike at the pumps. Stephen Schork of The Schork Report says oil's rally last year was nothing more than the creation of a speculative bubble and it wasn't based on true supply and demand. Simply put, all those newsy reports about the reason for the high price of gasoline, the free market coming down hard, was a spin. Gas prices are inching up, but are still lower than this time last year. Most regular gas is moving toward $2.50 a gallon. The big run-up in prices last year was not based on economic fundamentals, but on traders bidding them up, ultimately to $147 a barrel. Only to then see the price plunge to $32 a barrel. The Financial Times' Chris Flood says prices are rising again because of various types of trading gambles. Flood quotes Mike Wittner, a senior oil analyst at Société Générale saying "Recent price strength is not based on economic fundamentals ... " In other words, the American public was victimized by financial speculators. We should be familiar with those folks and their ploys by now.

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