How Politicians Make Themselves Look Stupid, Part 2

Posted In: Commodities, Congress, Energy, Natural Resources, Oil, Political Parties, Politicians, Speculators, U.S. Government

Yesterday, I noted in part 1 that Senate Democrats, led by Senators Byron Dorgan and Harry Reid, rolled out the “Stop Excessive Speculation Act” Tuesday morning to scare off crude oil speculators, who they blame for high prices.

Crude for August delivery, scheduled to expire Tuesday, dropped $3.09, or 2.3%, to settle at $127.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest close since June 5.

Ironically, later in the day a task force chaired by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (the agency assigned with investigating/punishing speculators in the bill) found that fundamental supply-and-demand factors, rather than speculators (as the politicians claimed), were most likely to blame for the high prices.

CNN Money picked up on the findings, which you can watch here. The segment lasts 1 minute 46 seconds.

Source:

“CFTC: No oil market manipulation”
Video
CNN Money, July 23, 2008

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