well well well ....... the time will come when the price you sell is less than the price it cost to '...get' it ,will we stop functioning???......i wonder.

harry, manchester, uk

if the purchaser are aloud to continue to act like they are the guy at the auction who buys the painting and then turns right around and declares it for sale in the same auction we wil never have a fair market value on commodities that all economic levels of society could live with.

james raber, sachse, USA

If an airline wants to hedge their fuel costs someone else has to hold the other end of the "bet". That's where the speculator comes in. No speculator = no hedging.

Blaming speculators is like blaming the punters when a horse loses (or wins).

Paul, Santiago,

A factor not usually mentioned is the lack of shipping capacity to meet the increased demand. No matter how much you increase supply, if you cannot deliver it, you have a de facto shortage.

Allan Mawdsley, Brussels, Belgium

What a load of nonsense. The simple answer is to make it law that purchasers operating in the future commodities markets have to take delivery of the purchased materials.
The good guys get to secure future prices, the bad guys can no longer operate, no more crippling speculator led inflation.

Glenn, Brecon, Wales

I am very pleased to see that the vast majority of comments here are scathing of the speculators. It is not only oil that has been affected but also even more basic commodities such as rice. Making money by starving the poor is immoral.

Nick Ferriman, Bangkok, Thailand

Most on here dont seem to understand restricting speculation would curtail sellers as much as buyers, removing an important potential source of downward price pressure.

The assertion that hedge funds cause volatility was rather obtuse and naive, as was the simplistic assessment of fee income

Rhys Rogers, New York, USA

The purpose of the futures markest is to allow the producers to hedge against future risk. The speculatiors supply liquidity to allow tghta to happen. Thus the purpose of the market is not to gamble or speculate. Congress is right to investigate to markets.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

Commercial entities such as airlines use oil futures markets to hedge against a cost in doing their primary business which is flying passengers. This involves physical labour, tangible resources etc.
Speculators primary business is to have an opinion i.e. speculate. Not exactly real work is it?

William, London, UK

Prices are not increasing because of free trade they are increasing because of speculation by desperate financial services organizations trying to offset their losses from speculation about the value of Collateralized Debt Obligations or more precisely, Vapour Ware, created to boost their bonuses

Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kingdom

You have yet to notice that a gambling addiction, like all addictions, is self-defeating.

Julia Iskandar, London, England

banks and the rest lost huge amounts in the subprime crisis and are now making it all back through oil, royally screwing the public twice in the process. since communism's fall capitalism is getting sloppy/ arrogant about revealing its excesses because currently it's the only game in town...

andy p, st albans, uk

If a Hedge fund manager gets paid 20% of all profit but pay nothing back if they're wiped out, it creates a perverse incentive to create volatility.
I.e
$100m gain, bonus $20m.
$100m loss, no bonus

The hedge fund manager nets $20m for performance but still loses you $20m after charges.

Matt, cardiff,

This article was too sensationalist to be taken as a serious defence of the speculators.

However, I applaud the speculators for the damage they are doing to globalization. Mass migration, cheap transportation of goods and Free Trade will suffer from their unrestrained greed.

TJA, London, UK

What a crap way to run a world.

Will the spiv ever be replaced by a more mature way of of finance?

Peter Thompson, Barmouth, UK

The author doesn't understand the US very well. The elected politicians have to react to public pressure to "do something". Any politician who doesn't at least try, will very likely lose their next election. This has nothing to do with puritanism or religion in American culture. It's about the cost

Terrence, Washington DC, USA

Americas only hope of maintaining itself as a first world nation with reason and logic is to shut the door on its cultural aliens. Ideally it needs its own Putin to reign in the crooks, oligarchs and internal enemies.

keith bentham, wigan, uk

Very True. Every word in this artiucle.

Nailesh Patel, LOndon, UK

"What is the logic of 100% increase in crude prices when demand has not risen more than 2%."
Prices have risen not only because of an increase in demand, but an inelasticity of supply. Supply decreasing while demand increases is a potent force. The supply margin is only 1-2%

Alex, Paddington, Australia

The simple fact that in past 7 years, oil consumption has remained constant, supplies have not depleted appreciably, yet prices have septupled (x7) has alarmed even the most ruthless defenders of Capitalism, the Americans.
The FUTURES TRADING model doesn't work for MONOPOLISED commodities i.e. OIL.

Nicholas, California, USA

Has the US congress never heard of the gnomes of Zurich? As much as you try to legislate there will always be somewhere to bet against you. Good to see the US committing the same mistake as SOX and driving wealth abroad!

Ian, Tokyo, Japan

What is the social obligation of pension & universities funds ?
To rob whole world, increase inflation, poverty & hunger ?
This is precise they are doing. What is the logic of 100% increase in crude prices when demand has not risen more than 2%. Free economy does'nt allow you to recklessly speculate

sudhir Agarwal, Kanpur, INDIA

What good do these people do for anyone but themselves?

They only live to make money and offer nothing back.

Let them get real jobs where they actually contribute something.

RJG, Richmond,

American consumer greed, not oil companies or speculators are responsible for high prices. That greed wanted cheap goods at 5p an hour labour, and resulted in the industrialization of China and India. They then needed more and more oil, and market forces--supply & demand--cause prices to rise.

Bob Evans, Anaheim, California

What Congress really wants to do is repeal the law of supply and demand. It sort of reminds one of King Canute.

Chris, Boca Raton, USA

Speculators neither consume nor produce. Before some aspects of the commodity market were deregulated, trading practices pretty much followed supply and demand. What kind of risk is it anyway, buying at low margins oil that only exists on paper . Regulate these bums, by all means!

Tom, Los Angeles, USA

Ridiculous. Have you even been to the United States? Effete introspection? Xenophobia? If you look at the UK news section on this and other websites, you'll find neither is in short supply in the UK, The 'last bastion of capitalism' (if it exists) is Chicago. How do I know? We just bought the NYME.

Matt, Chicago, IL, USA

Why tarnish a sensible inquest to regulate Crude prices by suggesting the US seek to regulate all markets? Rank manipulation of oil production, storage, shipment and trading is continuing daily to all our cost. Are you being paid by Opec, an Investment Bank or maybe a Hedge Fund?

Will, Lincoln, UK

It is gambling, America regulates gambling so what is wrong with sensible regulation of gambling on commodities or stocks. I would like to see onerous regulation to limit pointless speculation and encourage real investment.

Terry, Radstock, England

Ridiculous. The US is not paralized by puritanism and xenophobia. Maybe you have noticed that Barack Obama may yet be president. Also, to discount that markets can be manipulated by speculators is to ignore recent history. Clearly this author just wanted to show how Britain is superior to the US

Ed Gill, Camas, WA, USA