Futures market needs revision
July 9th, 2008 | by mantrionline |Surely by now Congress has figured out who is running up the price of oil to unreasonable prices. It’s not demand in China or India. It’s the futures market in our own country, which is broken and needs fixing.
Big oil companies and the OPEC oil countries are getting richer because of this, but they are not entirely responsible for the market prices unless they cut production. They are just reaping the benefits of an out-of-control futures market.
The oil sold on the futures market depletes our oil reserves for this oil, for it has to be held for future delivery, although speculators have no intention of taking delivery of any oil.
An energy bill was defeated in the Senate earlier this month that would have given Congress more control over the oil futures market. Partisan politics killed this bill and they were not willing to compromise or even discuss the bill further.
The success or failure of many businesses in this country is going to be determined by Congress bringing this under their control. If they don’t act now, our economy will be brought to its knees and they won’t be running the most powerful country in the world.
The value of our dollar will continue to decline and this will make not only oil go higher, but everything we import will cost us even more.
