Gary Weiss: "Oil Speculators: The Damage is Real"

Gary Weiss' op-ed piece on TheStreet.com (cross-posted on Sen. Bernie Sanders webpage as well) pinpoints recent studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Goldman Sachs, which I pointed to last week, showing that oil speculation causing gas prices to rise is not merely an undocumented theory, but a fairly substantiated one.

"Just look at this study by the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which found that speculation "played a significant role in the oil price increase between 2004 and 2008 and its subsequent collapse." Last year, a Goldman Sachs study found that every 10 million contracts traded by speculators adds 10 cents to the price of a barrel of oil. That translates to as much as $23 a barrel, when you consider that speculative futures contracts have been the equivalent of 230 million barrels of oil."

Even though signs are pointing that oil may now have peaked, it seems these common-sense reforms to regulate and discourage rampant oil speculation for the future only makes sense. Too bad Republicans are so immured by the oil industry to try any legislative tactic besides opening up more useless oil fields.

You can read the whole article here.