Speculators who don’t take delivery (and we know today’s aren’t because oil inventory numbers are going down and not up) have no more control over oil prices than traders in weather futures have over wind speeds.
Recently, I have been intending to write something similar. Except I was going to compare oil speculators to those who bet on athletics.
And as a funny, yet somewhat scary anecdote, let me recall a conversation I had with an older fellow in Missouri. He said that to lower oil prices we should open the strategic reserves. The beauty of the plan, he argued, was that once prices got lower, we could just buy back all the oil we released at lower prices! I countered that if selling a whole bunch of oil will lower prices, then one should probably assume that buying a while bunch of oil would raise prices. He remained unswayed and emphasized that it was an easy proposition so long as young, smart people tried really hard to make it happen.
So there you have it, the solution to our energy price problems; young people working for the government figuring out how to hide the purchase of tens of millions of barrels of oil. Easy.
In case you didn’t see my reply to your comment on my blog - I too will be at CVille tomorrow. Beth is manning (er… womanning?) the table for her company and I’m going to be job hunting. I’ll definitely stop by your table. Hell, I’ll probably give you a resume. But I will require a free TV.
PS. If you make it to CVille tonight - we’re gonna head to Wild Wing Cafe around 8pm for some wings. Join us.