Surely they must have missed something in those previous investigations.

There have been futures markets in things like oil for years. There were futures markets in oil when prices were high. There were futures markets in oil during the 80s and 90s when the price was in the toilet. If speculation activity was all it took to ramp prices up, they would never go down.

But hey, like I said, we can investigate this for another four years. Or maybe ten.

The important thing is that voters (most of which wouldn't know a futures contract if it bit them) believe their heroic political leaders are defending them from those rapacious "speculators." Meanwhile, nobody will be paying attention to the influence of the "Arab Spring" fiasco, the loss of Western influence in the Middle East, and the continuous government attacks on the oil industry for the past four years.

For the record, an anticipated supply problem is as effective in raising prices in the market as an actual one. It's not an "aberration" of the free market. It's how it works.