Who would you want to entrust it to? In Eastern Europe we used to have 5 year plans it worked really well, everybody knows that.
Consumers and producers that actually plan to make or take delivery. Not gamblers, speculators, funds, manipulators etc. that have no intention of ever making or taking delivery.
Maybe it's "Patriot Act, Part II"... the Food and Energy portion... You know, where they sky the commodity prices and the Gummint takes away even MORE of our civil liberties in exchange for price controls....
We don't need price controls. We need a system where actual demand from actual consumers and actual supply from actual suppliers are what determine price. Imaginary demand from trend followers, bots, funds, institutions that will never take delivery must be removed from the equation. In short NYMEX and ICE need to be shut down and replaced with direct negotiation between real consumers and real producers.
Can speculators not sell short???? Maybe you should spend more time trading and less time traveling. Where were all of the speculators when oil trading at $11 ten years ago.
Actually speculators cannot sell short in a massive (yet artificial) uptrend - unless they want a margin call.
There is plenty of liquidity in the real market between real consumers and real producers. More money is spent on oil and related products than probably any other commodity. Is that enough liquidity for you?
i read an article recently linking the price increases mainly to large hedge funds that are "investing" buy and hold style rather than speculating. speculators don't hurt the prices long term because they take profits and the prices return to fair value. investors inflate the price gradually... of course of some funds over leverage or panic it could set a chain and the prices would crash...