Shell Chief blames speculators

We find it hard to explain oil at $100 a barrel. I don’t see anyone queing for fuel and nor are there any physical shortages,” Mr Voser said.

“The price seems to be driven by some speculation and also has a political premium in it, rather than actually some of the fundamental drivers,” he added.

Try to follow with me...remove the political blinders for a second:

What's noteworthy is the motive. Profiting on oil speculation is risky if done short term because of the volitility of the oil futures. So speculation on oil was a minor influence in the past, because sane investors could profit far more quickly on other less risky ventures. Any entity holding significant stocks of oil must do this long-term, for a sustained time and hope that other factors will not deflate the prices one has worked to build up to really reap a benefit. You also have to sell your stocks in a timely manner to reap the benefit. These speculators don't sell when conventional wisdom would do so and release the oil to market.

Given this, it's obvious these speculators have other profit motives besides oil profits.

Any economic problems will, of course, be blamed by the Democrats and the liberal media on President Bush and the Republicans. The Republicans may not be smart enough to recognize that hedge fund managers and their links to the Democratic Party could become a potent campaign issue. Perhaps they will regard the issue as too “populist” for their taste.

If the Democrats succeed in exploiting the economic problems, they will not only keep control of Congress in this fall’s elections but will put Clinton or Obama in the White House. Their “mandate,” however, will go beyond new government programs for the economy into the social realm. And that’s where Soros has a keen interest.

And from a far more left leaning source:

That would mean today that at least $50 to $60 or more of today’s $115 a barrel price is due to pure hedge fund and financial institution speculation. However, given the unchanged equilibrium in global oil supply and demand over recent months amid the explosive rise in oil futures prices traded on Nymex and ICE exchanges in New York and London it is more likely that as much as 60% of the today oil price is pure speculation. No one knows officially except the tiny handful of energy trading banks in New York and London and they certainly aren’t talking.

If one is trying to disperse US wealth to the world, destroying our primary industrial and economic center seems like a good target.

The money to Mexico is just 25 percent of the problem. The higher Federal expenditures in Iraq were another 10 percent. These losses simply made us much more susceptible to a serious blow in the right spot.

The Democrats already control congress. I see no serious legislation emerging designed to save the nation from oil speculators and only now hass "domestic sources of oil" entered their political vocabulary.

In case you missed it. I said NEITHER Obama or McCain or their respective parties will fix the mess.

The US can't extricate itself from this mess because both parties are full of exploitive, self-serving, politicians beholden to banks and those who pull their puppet strings and because our banks have been party to the exploitation of the citizenry.

I'm not giving up though. I have quite a few ideas on how to rechannel the monies lost overseas back home and how to rebuild our industrial sector at the same time.

When one chess games is over, another begins.

This is not the end of America. Just another beginning.