Below is a link to an article by F. W. Engdahl concerning the manipulation of oil prices. He goes into some detail about the involvement of various exchanges, the CFTC, US investment banks, large hedge funds and large pension funds. He concludes that there may be significant (40-50%) "speculator-induced" inflation of the current price of oil. Could someone tell me whether the "pathway" he outlines is correct? In essence he says that the CFTC does not intervene when US traders use ICE terminals to trade WTI on the ICE Futures Exchange in London and thereby avoid all US market oversight. He outlines the consequences of this lack of oversight. Is this stuff for real or is he just another crank looking for ways to peddle whatever? lj http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE06Dj07.html
he's written a great series on the "financial tsunami" in 5 parts, i highly recommend it http://financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/main.html
"A Century of War" is also a good read by F. Willian Engdahl. http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/2005/Engdahl.html We are all paying for the manipulations of the oil markets through higher gas prices as well as other increases in prices such as food, transportation, clothing related to the inflated price of oil. Good for those that are able to take advantage of it but for those less fortunate, which is by far the majority, it is unfair balance. Manipulated higher oil prices will only cause more problems than we already have today.