Gentlemen, I wanted to get your thoughts on this article, specifically if it is correct in its assertion that speculation raises gas prices. http://money.howstuffworks.com/oil-speculation-raise-gas-price.htm My understanding is that speculators serve a valuable function in a free market economy by…

Speculation can certainly raise gas prices. In a freed market, that would be a good thing if it were moderating the supply of gas as you described. The question is what are speculators investing with today? Partially, they are using lots of cheap credit produced by the central banking systems of the…

I found this PDF from a Bob Murphy to be very helpful when researching this topic. It’s only 2 or 3 pages. Murphy also released a Youtube video within the last 2 or 3 weeks that helps explain this as well. Hope this helps. http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2008/06/23/speculators-not-to-blam…

The article talks about futures and derivatives trading, from the article: "An oil future is simply a contract between a buyer and seller, where the buyer agrees to purchase a certain amount of a commodity – in this case oil – at a fixed price [source: CFTC]. Futures offer a way for a purchaser to…

“while demand rose supply kept pace” How in thw world is it possible to measure this? I would really like to know how to calculate it so I can be the richest man in the universe.

While demand rose, supply kept pace. Yet, prices still skyrocketed. This means that the laws of supply and demand no longer applied in the oil markets. He forgot about inflation of the money supply. Instead, an artificial market developed. What is an artificial market? As a result of specul…

Does speculation raise gas prices?

Economics Economics Questions

John_James April 20, 2012, 4:46pm 3

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See here, here, here.

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Does speculation raise gas prices?

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