Germany in call for ban on oil speculation

Germany in call for ban on oil speculation

www.telegraph.co.uk

German leaders are to propose a worldwide ban on oil trading by speculators, blaming the latest spike in crude prices on manipulation by hedge funds.

It is the most drastic proposal to date amid escalating calls from Europe, the US and Asia for controls on market forces, underscoring the profound shift in the political climate since the credit crunch began. India has already suspended futures trading of five commodities.

----------

Mr Beckmeyer said the last 25pc rise in the price of oil to $135 a barrel had nothing to do with underlying supply and demand. “It’s pure speculation,” he said.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.globalresearch.ca
www.globalresearch.ca
www.telegraph.co.uk

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
‘Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation’

Nice to see that someone understands the way to inhibit rising oil prices. Hats off to Germany for seeing the light and spearheading the way. This speculation has got to stop!

As detailed in an earlier article, a conservative calculation is that at least 60% of today’s $128 per barrel price of crude oil comes from unregulated futures speculation by hedge funds, banks and financial groups using the London ICE Futures and New York NYMEX futures exchanges and uncontrolled inter-bank or Over-The-Counter trading to avoid scrutiny. US margin rules of the government’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission allow speculators to buy a crude oil futures contract on the Nymex, by having to pay only 6% of the value of the contract. At today's price of $128 per barrel, that means a futures trader only has to put up about $8 for every barrel. He borrows the other $120. This extreme “leverage” of 16 to 1 helps drive prices to wildly unrealistic levels and offset bank losses in sub-prime and other disasters at the expense of the overall population.

The hoax of Peak Oil—namely the argument that the oil production has hit the point where more than half all reserves have been used and the world is on the downslope of oil at cheap price and abundant quantity—has enabled this costly fraud to continue since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with the help of key banks, oil traders and big oil majors. Washington is trying to shift blame, as always, to Arab OPEC producers. The problem is not a lack of crude oil supply. In fact the world is in over-supply now. Yet the price climbs relentlessly higher. Why? The answer lies in what are clearly deliberate US government policies that permit the unbridled oil price manipulations.

See links for additional information on this issue.



www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by SystemiK


I pray this works. I think the people who are profiting off of this are probably pretty powerful though and will be able to put up a pretty good fight.

The markets will merely move offshore if this happens. How are you going to fix that?

The other drastic measure, forcing speculators to take delivery of the crude, is also an interesting gambit.

We need a cohesive energy policy. The entire world does also.

In the meantime, open ANWR, coastal Florida, and other places for exploration. Build more nuclear and a dozen new refineries. Windmills off of Cape Cod. Tidal turbines all around.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.