Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Oil speculators fuel higher pump prices

The Toronto Star:

U.S. president Barack Obama unveiled a plan Tuesday to throttle oil price manipulation by market speculators as part of a bid to lower gasoline prices.

Obama wants the U.S. Congress to strengthen federal supervision of oil markets, increase penalties for market manipulation and allow regulators to slap energy traders with stiffer financial requirements to back up their trades.

Proponents of the plan say that when hedge funds and huge investment firms such as Goldman Sachs buy up futures contracts to bet on the direction of the price of oil, it drives up the price of the commodity, and by extension, the price of gasoline
.

Continue reading here.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.