Regulate oil speculators

unionman

Well-Known Member
NEW YORK -- Federal regulators are planning their first major step to rein in oil speculators. Whether it's enough to control future spikes in energy prices remains to be seen.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday will consider setting trade limits on the New York Mercantile Exchange to keep fund managers and other "speculative" investors from wielding too much influence in the market.

Speculators - investors who make money by trading oil contracts - have flooded the Nymex in recent years. They mostly bet that oil will get more expensive, leading many to believe that their presence in the market jacks up prices.
The limits proposed by the CFTC would cap how many contracts traders could buy. Violators likely would be told to get rid of especially large positions. The CFTC also has the power to issue fines and revoke trading privileges on the exchange.
Speculators got most of the blame when crude soared above $147 a barrel in 2008. But economists who studied commission data point out that exchange-traded funds and other investors have historically moved in the opposite direction of the market, selling when prices rise and buying contracts when prices fall.
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01/14/2010 2:42PM ET


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CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton said the commission should start slowly, keeping caps high enough that most exchange-traded funds and other speculative investments wouldn't immediately feel pressure to change their trading practices.
 

av8torntn

Well-Known Member
This is horrible. We can all agree I think that speculation helps create price stability. Two adults should be allowed to enter into contract with each other over the prices of commodities. More insane government intervention. Very sad indeed.


"But economists who studied commission data point out that exchange-traded funds and other investors have historically moved in the opposite direction of the market, selling when prices rise and buying contracts when prices fall."

So our government in the name of protection is going to now over regulate this and cause oil and other commodities to soar. Here's to hoping the population to rise up to this proposed tyranny.
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
This is horrible. We can all agree I think that speculation helps create price stability. Two adults should be allowed to enter into contract with each other over the prices of commodities. More insane government intervention. Very sad indeed.
When profits come at the expense of the public not being able to get to work, the Government stopping greed is good.
How can you justify the speculators driving up oil to 150 dollars a barrell when there is no shortage?
Its greed plain and simple and we pay for it at the pump and evrywhere. Oil is to critical to the world and our economies to let a few get rich while they throw the world into trouble.
 

Lue C Fur

Evil member
I have an idea...LETS DRILL AND USE OUR OWN OIL. What about all the nat gas we have???

Maybe then prices wont be so high since we are using our own and there is more oil in the market.

Thats a stupid idea though...we should just build windmills, electric cars, and ban nuclear power plants. Heck when we force eveyone to have electric cars we can pass the cap and tax bill and really get some tax money since it will come from the super high electric bill used to charge the cars. Then we will have more money to use for Obamacare. Gotta love redistrubution of wealth.
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
Just the idea that there is legislation coming will drop the price of oil. There is no reason it should be at 80 dollars a barrel. There is plenty of the stuff and there are no shortages, just pure mad money being made at the publics expense.
I would like to see us using some of that oil we got in the rocky mountains that's hard to get at. Its in the rocks and expensive to extract.
 

av8torntn

Well-Known Member
When profits come at the expense of the public not being able to get to work, the Government stopping greed is good.
How can you justify the speculators driving up oil to 150 dollars a barrell when there is no shortage?
Its greed plain and simple and we pay for it at the pump and evrywhere. Oil is to critical to the world and our economies to let a few get rich while they throw the world into trouble.

You take an emotional position not based in any fact. I believe this is a more accurate view of speculation and the vital role it plays to protect consumers.

Here
 

av8torntn

Well-Known Member
How can you justify the speculators driving up oil to 150 dollars a barrell when there is no shortage?
.


To add: The relationship between the value of a dollar and the value of a barrel of oil? Instead of of having anger at someone who buys the future production of a barrel of oil why not focus your anger on the destruction of the value of the dollar? Just a thought.
 

tieguy

Banned
Just the idea that there is legislation coming will drop the price of oil. There is no reason it should be at 80 dollars a barrel. There is plenty of the stuff and there are no shortages, just pure mad money being made at the publics expense.
I would like to see us using some of that oil we got in the rocky mountains that's hard to get at. Its in the rocks and expensive to extract.

if I'm an oil baron I stop producing oil if I feel the price offered is too low. You have to be careful when you start discussing price controls.
 

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
I have an idea...LETS DRILL AND USE OUR OWN OIL. What about all the nat gas we have???

Maybe then prices wont be so high since we are using our own and there is more oil in the market.

Thats a stupid idea though...we should just build windmills, electric cars, and ban nuclear power plants. Heck when we force eveyone to have electric cars we can pass the cap and tax bill and really get some tax money since it will come from the super high electric bill used to charge the cars. Then we will have more money to use for Obamacare. Gotta love redistrubution of wealth.
I always knew Satan had to be a Republican. I always thought it was Cheney. Lue, you big pretender!:happy2:
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
You take an emotional position not based in any fact. I believe this is a more accurate view of speculation and the vital role it plays to protect consumers.

ITS KNOW DIFFERENT THAN THIS............
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today strongly endorsed President Obama's proposal to levy a "responsibility fee" on the biggest and most leveraged banks in the U.S.
President Obama said he wants the fee to compensate the American people for the extraordinary help they gave Wall Street.
"This tax helps make up for the financial recklessness that caused so much pain to so many ordinary working families," Hoffa said. "Bankers should not have been selling irresponsible products that destabilize American businesses and getting big paychecks for doing so."
More than 30,000 Teamsters who work for YRCW (YRCW
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) could have lost their jobs recently because banks like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and others made credit default markets from YRCW's bonds. That created an incentive for bondholders with credit default swap (CDS) coverage to force a bankruptcy to cash in the insurance.
The nation's biggest trucker, YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW
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) is the parent company of YRC, Holland, Reddaway and New Penn trucking companies. Hoffa appealed to YRCW bondholders to take part in the debt-for-equity exchange offer by factoring in the fact that 30,000 families depended on a successful exchange and followed up by threatening a protest in front of financial offices in New York. The swap was essential for YRCW's survival.
"During the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearings yesterday we heard these bankers argue they sell their exotic financial instruments to 'professional investors,'" Hoffa said. "But its ordinary people who feel the pain when their employer goes under or their pension fund fails."
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
I understand your point but I don't see govenment intervention via price controls fixing the problem.
They are going to limit the way its done not the price. people are manipulating it and thats when you need regulation because its too important a comodity for a few weasles to get rich off of while it destroys the worlds economy.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
They are going to limit the way its done not the price. people are manipulating it and thats when you need regulation because its too important a comodity for a few weasles to get rich off of while it destroys the worlds economy.

Unionman,

You might find this article on oil speculation of interest and on the left margin of the page under the Oil and Energy heading you might find much more of interest. Happy reading!

:peaceful:
 
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