The point is that it is completely naive to suggest the price rises in commodities are due 100% to speculation, which was what the poster alleged. Speculation has played a role, but the bull market of the last 5+ years has been driven by fundamentals first and foremost.
Here ya go idiots, I'm never wrong. Now go back to your paper trading. WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday it was expanding its surveillance of the energy markets, and had begun an investigation into potential oil market manipulation in the U.S. The announcement - including the extraordinary notice of an ongoing investigation - comes after crude-oil futures prices tested new all-time highs last week above $130 a barrel and after Congress moved toward stricter regulation of the commodity markets. The CFTC said its enforcement division had launched a nationwide crude oil investigation in December 2007 into practices surrounding the purchase, transportation, storage and trading of crude oil and related derivative contracts. The regulator normally doesn't make public ongoing investigations, but said that "the extraordinary step of disclosing this investigation because of today's unprecedented market conditions." The commission said the specifics of the ongoing investigation would remain confidential.
See the following links: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080606/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080607/oil_prices_bodman.html http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105201/Six-Fixes-for-High-Gas-Prices http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080607/oil_meeting.html Not good!