Who's to Blame for Oil Prices?

Those who know me know that I am not a fan of Pres. Bush, I or II. I believe their policies and decisions have been detrimental to the U.S. in many ways. Bush, however is not to blame for the high cost of oil. As much fun as it is to blame him for everything, he doesn't have that kind of power. Also, this is not OPEC's fault; they have repeatedly reported that there is no shortage in the world oil supply. The oil companies are making record profits, but the government clears more profit through taxes per gallon of gas than do all of the oil companies. No, these are not the guilty here, just “the usual suspects”. There has been no shortage, no oil wells destroyed by hurricanes or war or environmental wackos. There have been no major oil catastrophes.

So, what is the cause? Gamblers, Wall Street speculators who trade in “Oil Futures” gambling that the price will keep going up and up. They raise more panic when the sun rises and when it sets in order to cause prices to go to artificial heights. The speculators are the ones causing the price increase and who are making the most profit. In the process, the higher the price of oil goes, the weaker the U.S. dollar gets. This hurts the entire economy, forces more manufacturing jobs out of the country which weakens the dollar which causes the price of oil to go up and so on. It is a vicious cycle. So, we can't blame Bush, darn it! But how do you control something like "oil futures" that are not real? I don't know, but these people are financially enslaving us with events that haven't happened.

Perhaps control it the way other gambling is controlled. Arrest them and seize their assets.