We need tight regulation of futures markets

I've insisted in many journal entries that rules of supply and demand cannot be driving the price of gasoline. I've urged that competition be restored among energy producers and that big media would get over their stupid resistance to digging out the story, such as the con job presented by Associated Press 5/25/08. Look up my references to these observations by entering "energy" and "gasoline" in the search box at the top of the page.

Among ways the federal government is manipulating this market and others is by allowing the giant casino called "futures market" to continue unchecked - where trillion-dollar hedge funds cause prices to rise and fall at the behest of the trillionaires who are calling the shots for profit and more profit.

That such markets should be allowed to dictate prices I pay for gasoline, bread, and other essentials is nothing short of criminal. That these economic forces are not being fully regulated and/or secretly regulated is even more criminal.

On 5/29/08 the Huston Chronicle wrote about the fact that the regulators of oil traders had told the public about an investigation into the cause of abnormal oil prices. Read it here.

And yesterday, 6/6/08, the Washington Post wrote about that subject again at this link.

Citizens interested in regaining the advantages of a free marketplace - meaning, for example, affordable gasoline - should demand reform and tight regulation of futures markets from Washington.