What has precipitated the spike in gas prices today?

[Cirque du So-What]

It went from $3.62/gal to $3.99/gal sometime during the day. Yesterday, I read a thread here on DU about oil speculation on the part of the Koch brothers, who are trying their damndest to tie the President's policies to high gas prices in the public's mind. In light of the latest poll numbers that show President Obama expanding his lead over * (yeah, he's the new *), could this sudden jump in price be the result of price manipulation on the part of those two sociopaths and their ilk?

[Initech]

1. Koch Roaches: my mansion is dirty! Buy me a clean one!

[Cirque du So-What]

3. OK, forget the fucking Kochs

as it obviously offends your conspiracy theory detector. What, then, could account for such a sudden jump in prices? After all, it's past Labor Day, no storms are currently threatening offshore oil refineries, and neither despot nor superpower is rattling sabers more loudly than usual. Did some refinery or pipeline explode? Haven't heard shit along those lines. I just wanna know. I'd tried to eliminate all other possibilities before jumping into the realm of conspiracy theory, but if you have a plausible explanation for this sudden leap, I'd like to hear it.

[Incitatus]

4. It's not an unreasonable assumption.

If they want to drive up prices before the election, they could just buy oil futures for the preceding months and drive up the price. Or oil companies could turn the spigot down, maybe it's a little of both.

[Initech]

5. Oil derivatives. They're responsible for it.

A quick Google search will tell you everything you need to know. I'd post links but it's difficult to do so on my phone.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. Yes, I know

That's why I broached the subject, although I knew it would open the door to eye-rolling cynicism. I'm fully aware that these societal parasites are dragging down the economy for personal enrichment, but I wanted to explore all possibilities before jumping to that conclusion.

[oswaldactedalone]

2. Republican setup

to make Obama look bad by hurting the economy. They want to voter's attention away from the Pubs miserable policies and all around general miserableness and give them something else to blame Obama for.

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Oil speculators.

I am not (completely) down with nationalizing, but people with no direct business interest in something as critical to our economy as the price of crude should not have any business in the WS casinos betting on it.

[Cirque du So-What]

8. I couldn't agree more

In fact, I believe the regulations governing commodities markets are far too lenient. These markets were created initially for the benefit of producers (farmers, initially) who could suffer during periods of overproduction or shortfalls. Today, commodities trading is merely a tool for enrichment of the 1% at the expense of everyone else.

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. It is a ginormous roulette table

with HFT rolling at 10,000 spins a minute.

IMO, without nationalizing, a trx tax on these bets at even a fraction of a penny per would solve the national debt and would hopefully slow this shit down somewhat so that the little guy could legitimately participate in market creation as designed.

/soapbox

[DonRedwood]

10. republican oil speculators

[Ruby the Liberal]

13. Greed (and HFT) comes in all political stripes, friend.

Why Libertarianism doesn't make sense. Selfish to the core while touting "people will eventually do the right thing". That socio-political/economic model doesn't take into account the love of money that has driven every economy from the stone age to date.

[spanone]

11. the election.

[onenote]

12. Your situation seems pretty anomalous

The AAA daily gas price tracking shows that the average national price is virtually unchanged from yesterday (or from last week even). The prices in my area (northern virginia) as basically unchanged from the weekend. Obviously, most places aren't seeing a 37 cent increase in gas prices in one day. Was this just one station? Did prices increase by a similar amount at other stations in your area or was this a case of one station catching up with the rest of the local market?

[Cirque du So-What]

15. The price rose uniformly at all stations in my area

The local TV news noted that prices rose all over the state, but that my metro area saw the steepest rise in prices - all without explanation.

[onenote]

16. Pretty strange.

I've seen a couple of news reports about the sudden jump in parts of Ohio. But no explanation for it. What seems clear is that whatever caused it was localized -- averaged nationally, prices remained fairly stable yesterday.

[Cirque du So-What]

18. Well, it is Ohio, after all

A hotly-contested battleground state. What better place for stirring up discontent?

[flying_wahini]

14. Corn futures.

Slim corn crops due to drought. Prices will be doubled or tripled for corn next spring.
corn = ethanol

[nanabugg]

17. Obama's positive poll numbers. The Koch brothers in action! nt