One hundred seventeen MILLION gallons of gas, diesel, and jet fuel exported EVERY DAY...

[cherokeeprogressive]

and that was LAST YEAR.

With a limited refining capacity (no new refineries since the 70's), how is it possible that Wall Street "speculators" in the crude oil market are the cause of high gasoline prices?

Watch Exxon-Mobil's profits...

Watch Chevron's profits... watch them all...

Then see how much they contribute to which candidate, and ask yourself... whose fingers out of our 537 national politicians are knuckle deep in that pie?

When will we get over the notion that the letter behind a politician's name means he/she is on OUR side and looking out for OUR best interests? Has the congressional insider trading bullshit been worked out yet? Of course not... we were shown a new shiny thing when the scandal broke, and most of us haven't given it a thought in more than two months.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-12-31/united-states-export/52298812/1

[msongs]

1. yeah you'd think that obama would point this out but....... nt

[cherokeeprogressive]

2. Well he DID offer us algae.

I for one am greatful for that.

[jeanpalmer]

3. If Wall Street speculators really are responsible

then why not do something about it? The steps that can be taken to shut down the speculation are common knowledge -- like raising margin requirements and restricting trading to principals. But, as in 2008, nothing is being done -- except for a few politicians making political hay off an issue they have no intention of ever doing anything about. Anything that is that would cut off the flow of money into their campaign coffers. They'll never cut off the hand that feeds them.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. it is a global market

you can hurt the speculators in this country but only the ones in this country

[jeanpalmer]

5. I'm not so sure about that

Raise the margin requirement in the US to 100% and see what happens to the price of oil in Asia. All these markets are interconnected to some extent at least. In the late '70's when the Hunt Brothers tried to corner the silver market, the margin requirement in the US was raised from 50% to 100% overnight without any warning. The Hunt Bros had to sell off their silver holdings to meet the new margin requirements and the price of silver worldwide collapsed within weeks.

Lending money to people to drive up the price of oil doesn't make sense to me. It's such a strategic commodity in terms of the negative effect its price can have on the economy.

[Javaman]

8. watch out...

I made this same type of argument back in '08 and got flamed big time.

addicts don't like to have their addiction pointed out to them, it makes them feel uncomfortable.

Cheers!

[ananda]

7. Why does that not surprise me...

....

[jwirr]

10. Your headline forgot only one relevant fact "by the corporations that control the oil".