Oil Prices Spike Exacerbated By Wall Street Speculation, Federal Reserve Study Finds

Now this makes a lot more sense than Obama's policies controlling the price of gas.

When gas prices go up, the President always takes the heat !!

I cannot recall in my lifetime (and that covers a long long time) always the President gets blamed and of course some of his policies MIGHT affect gas prices, but even your linked article blames only 15% of the increase on their source.

This gas increase plus an election year = what is happening !!

Wall Street traders are speculators by occupation and so they will react to the WH Admin energy policies as a factor in what they do or do not do

Presidents all seem to take credit for positive outcomes and claim to have no control over those negative aspects. The downward prices on natural gas had to do with policies enacted when clinton/Bush were in office. the same applies for any oil drilling. Obama has stifled fossil fuel exploration and those policies will show up but later down the road.

the blame can only be placed on the POTUS and most of the dolts in Washington as they over the years have done nothing about our enslavement to foreign oil. And Obama has continued with the legacy...or worse because he has been an impediment to most actions that involve increasing the oil or energy capability of America now or in the future.

btk

Even allowing for the story posted by the OP; if President Obama opened up "closed for business" US oil fields to drilling, the speculators would be taking a different tack in their investing and even before a drop of crude made it to an available gas tank the price would be reflecting the future of the coming US oil surge.

The prices at the pump would go down.

Originally Posted by RichieLion

Even allowing for the story posted by the OP; if President Obama opened up "closed for business" US oil fields to drilling, the speculators would be taking a different tack in their investing and even before a drop of crude made it to an available gas tank the price would be reflecting the future of the coming US oil surge.

The prices at the pump would go down.

Ofcourse they would. Supply and demand. The AP had a story today saying no matter how much we drilled it wouldn't happen. Has the AP sold out?

Originally Posted by Posh 08

Ofcourse they would. Supply and demand. The AP had a story today saying no matter how much we drilled it wouldn't happen. Has the AP sold out?

AP and Rueter's sold their souls to the Democrat Party, and especially Obama, years ago. The story in AP's take makes little business sense.

Watch how they'll report Obama's little reported trip to Kansas today as indication he might approve the Keystone Pipeline in order to boost his ratings, when it's all pap.

Oil production is at a all time high in the USA and demand is at an all time low......maybe some of you can figure out why the price continues to climb. It has very little to do with supply and demand. The midwest has a glut of oil so much that gas prices are down.

Originally Posted by RichieLion

AP and Rueter's sold their souls to the Democrat Party, and especially Obama, years ago. The story in AP's take makes little business sense.

Watch how they'll report Obama's little reported trip to Kansas today as indication he might approve the Keystone Pipeline in order to boost his ratings, when it's all pap.

Yes they are. I did see through that one.

the US oil production may in fact be at an all time high. That statement by itself does not address the fact that our dependency on foreign oil has almost doubled over the last 40 years. The doubling of an insufficient amount to be independent from foreign oil is still = to an insufficient amount of domestic production to break the hold the foreign producers have on our energy use destiny.

Supposedly production is up while domestic demand is down. One reason is that refineries are exporting gasoline. So there could be a real demand on overall capacity while the domestic piece is down.

Another reason is that a significant number of refineries are not in production. Hence another impact on available capacity (and pricing).

It has been a point of discussion (no progress) for years that all the USA has to do is to announce it's plans to begin opening oil fields for drilling....increase domestic production and decrease import quantities AND become a competitor on the open oil market. The announcement followed by a long term plan would in fact have an impact on investors, speculators and foreign oil producers.

We have yet to do anything "substantial" (there is that word again!) to increase our domestic capabilities. It is business as usual in Washington on this subject. The speculators and investors and the foreign oil producers know it and have become accustomed and comfortable that politicians will do nothing to change the status quo of our energy capability.

We certainly don't want to upset our FRIENDS in the middle east do we? The current admistration certainly isn't by his energy lack of action(s). Please don't insult us with the so called green energy partisan BS!!

btk

and what is wrong with green energy?

Originally Posted by waynet

Oil production is at a all time high in the USA and demand is at an all time low......maybe some of you can figure out why the price continues to climb. It has very little to do with supply and demand. The midwest has a glut of oil so much that gas prices are down.

waynet: the claim is that some of the oil refineries have shut down

I happen to agree with BTK. Obama's energy policies or lack thereof are harmful

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Oil Prices Spike Exacerbated By Wall Street Speculation, Federal Reserve Study Finds

Now this makes a lot more sense than Obama's policies controlling the price of gas.

It's important to note that this was the opinion of two economists at The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis and not an official finding by The Federal Reserve.

What is being called speculation is actually Oil Futures trading conducted on The New York Mercantile Exchange. Traders buy and sell oil futures based upon what they believe the actual market price of oil will be when delivery is made.
This article explains it rather well. Oil price Q&A: What are oil futures and how are they traded? - Telegraph

Futures trading is essential to the economy because it provides oil producers assurance that there will be a market for their product and companies using diesel, gasoline etc. a basis from which to project costs and fulfill contracts. The railroads can project and quote costs for shipping since they know in advance what their fuel costs will be. You friendly airline can sell you a ticket for your summer vacation, based upon the knowledge of fuel costs. One good example of this was Southwest Airlines contracting to purchase oil for $55 per barrel for a period of several years when oil prices were below that. Oil prices rose, but Southwest's did not - resulting in a significant competitive advantage.

Demonizing Future Trading and calling it speculation may be good politics but does not deal with reality. The price of oil will continue to rise with summer driving season starting in June and the prospect of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Traders are playing with their open money and are certainly more objective than those who wish to point fingers and call them the evil bogey man.

article in the Sun today explaining that more US drilling won't affect gas prices at home. There are numerous other factors at play that determine the price of gas. Basically the article disputes the" drill baby drill" influence" mantra many on this board espouse. Oil is a global commodity and US production has only a tiny influence on supply. Factors far beyond our control have more influence on the price.

Obama is misleading the public about the amount of oil we have in the ground. When he says we have 2% of the oil and use 20%, that right ONLY if you're talking about current resources. We have much much more untapped oil; more oil than Saudi Arabia by some estimates, if we would only extract it.

Obama uses these numbers of the proven reserves as a way to argue it would be futile to drill for more oil in his anti-energy scheme, so as to suggest there could never be enough to meet our needs.

"As much as we're doing to increase oil production," Obama says, "we're not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices."

"Some of us believe that the president is trying to suggest that we don't have adequate resource here in the United States, which is just not true," says Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, another industry group.

In fact, one industry analyst says by tapping American oil along with Canadian resources and renewable energy, the U.S. could be self sufficient in just 12 years.

It's time to fight the misinformation, and start the drilling.

Energy Industry Accuses Obama Of Misleading Public About Extent Of Untapped Oil Resources | Fox News