this is a scam! the oil companies, showing 44 billion in profits the very first quarter of this year, and the senate, congress and the president, who the oil companies backed in their elections along with kickback to all of them, are scamming the americans for just sheer price gouging! this is how big government works for you! all elected officials are liars and crooks! i'm 60 yrs. old and i've seen it all before and, along with the most crooked of them all the bush family, the oil companies and elected officials are hand in hand on screwing you out of every penny they can get! did you know that china is bragging that in 5 years they will own the united states? thats how much the feds have borrowed from them just to stay afloat! the government is to big and out of control! oil prices are the same way! our leaders have betrayed every american, excluding the moslems they brought here and the mexicans that bush and fox, the mex pres. made a deal to break the backs of the middle class and they succeeded haven't they? thats how low down our government really is and now the ones running, except ron paul, are just exactly like what we have right now! don't you think it's time for a new labor party?

this reminds me of the chief economist at PIMCOs comments, as if OECD governments have moved the oil markets before by their every word. i think the key here is whether the oil release will be light sweet. if it's light sweet then it more than replaces the volumes lost from libya. that should have a strong and lasting effect on both benchmarks as we pass through the height of the driving season and into fall. by the time the release is over front month will be october 2011. notwithstanding china's drought-driven demand for diesel prices should go down, i'd wager.

So everybody and their brother knows the problem is speculation, but nothing gets done. Only one reform is needed, require delivery. Game over. Don't the money whores have enough ways to screw the world? Let's take all commodities out of the game.

Commodities Watch: The Coming End to QE2
by 24/7 Wall St, 3 June, 2011

"Today’s commodities watch offers some thoughts about the coming end of the Federal Reserve’s QE2 program and the effect that will have on commodity prices. One could make a pretty good argument that the near-meteoric rise in some commodity prices which began late last summer were at least partly due to the $600 billion that the US Federal Reserve Bank decided to spend on buying US Treasuries. One could also argue that a substantial piece of that $600 billion was poured into commodities markets, especially oil, silver, gold, and copper.bWhat is likely to happen now that QE2 is nearing its termination date of June 30th?"

Most readers of FP know that the speculators and hedge funders manipulate the oil prices and boost the price to 30-40% above it's fair market value. The oil companies have gone along for the ride and made that extra profit without any expense. The Republicans will slit their wrists before they even mention the word SPECU---What?? The Democrats in Congress take the prize for gutlessness in not calling out the Republicans on this issue. The Republicans know what's going on but then accuse the Democrats of not drilling faster and faster. This legalized robbery was permitted when Republicans (actually Enron lawyers wrote the bill) managed to get Clinton to sign, "The Commodities Modernization Act of 2000" which allowed hedge funds and speculators to run wild. The commodities markets need re-regulated to require that only end users can sign futures contracts to buy or sell commodities. I personally would prefer the old Soviet method of solving the problem. All those firing squads and dead bodies are a bit messy, but the fear factor does bring discipline.