McClatchy: Are Wall Street speculators driving up gasoline prices?

[deminks]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/68552.html

WASHINGTON — Oil and gasoline prices are rising fast as Memorial Day weekend approaches, but not because supplies are tight or demand is high.

U.S. crude-oil inventories are at their highest levels in almost two decades, and demand has fallen to a 10-year low, but crude oil prices have climbed more than 70 percent since mid-January to a six-month high of $62.04 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, although refiners are operating at less than 85 percent of capacity, which leaves them plenty of room to churn out more gasoline if demand rises during the summer driving season, the price of gasoline at the pump has climbed 28 cents a gallon from a month earlier to $2.33.

This time, Wall Street speculators — some of them recipients of billions of dollars in taxpayers' bailout money — may be to blame.

(end snip)

There they go again.

[Initech]

1. Wall Street can go fuck themselves.

:grr:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Yes, it is openly discussed in the news...

and we just take it like lap dogs as the gubbmint sits on its hands.

[KillCapitalism]

3. $4/gal. here we go again. n/t

[RB TexLa]

4. Oil is a commodity

[KoKo]

5. There have been rumours with some fact on Financial Blogs, that speculators drove the price up

last Summer and helped set up the situation that brought down the banks (a little too early for Bushies) while breaking average American's pocketbooks and wallets at the height of driving season...

[Wednesdays]

6. K&R

:kick:

[emsimon33]

7. We need to reinstate the laws regarding speculation

[truedelphi]

8. As long as Geithner/Bernanke are in charge,that will not happen

Theya re creating an entire agency to "oversee" the happenings on Wall Street. An agency creation which is necessary. Tog et our economy back to its successes of the nineteen fifties and sixties - simply reinstate Glass Steagall, and scrap the odious Bank reform Acto of 1999, including the almsot two hundred page Credit Modernization Act.

Then we would be without this speculation.

So Geithner is careful to avoid doing that.