From: jesus475073@webtv.net   
      
   $8.00/gal. Gas?   
   Group: news:alt.discuss.god-talk.christian Date: Fri, Sep 16, 2011,   
   6:42pm From: redigone@webtv.net (jeffry gagnon)   
      
   What Wall Street Doesn't Want Us to Know About Oil Prices   
       By Bernie Sanders   
      
   The top six financial institutions in this country own assets equal to   
   MORE THAN 60 PERCENT OF OUR GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT and possess enormous   
   economic and political power.   
      
    One of the great questions of our time is whether the American people,   
   through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal   
   behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak   
   havoc on our economy and the lives of working families.   
      
    I represent Vermont, a rural state where many workers drive long   
   distances to jobs that pay $12 an hour or less.   Many seniors living   
   on fixed incomes heat their homes with oil during our cold winters.   
   These people have asked me to do all that I can to lower outrageously   
   high gasoline and heating-oil prices.   I intend to do just that.   
      
    Why have oil prices spiked wildly?   
   Some argue that the volatility is a result of supply-and-demand   
   fundamentals.   More and more observers, however, believe that   
   EXCESSIVE SPECULATION IN THE OIL FUTURES MARKET BY INVESTORS is driving   
   oil prices sky high.   
      
    A June 2 article in the Wall Street Journal said it all:   
    "Wall Street is tapping a real gusher in 2011, as heightened volatility   
   and higher prices of oil and other raw materials boost banks' profits."   
      
    ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson, testifying before a Senate panel   
   this year, said that EXCESSIVE SPECULATION may have increased oil prices   
   BY AS MUCH AS 40 PERCENT.   
      
    Delta Air Lines general counsel Richard Hirst wrote to federal   
   regulators in December that "the speculative bubble in oil prices has   
   concrete detrimental consequences for the real economy."   
   An American Trucking Association vice president, Richard Moskowitz,   
   said, "Excessive speculation has caused dramatic increases in the price   
   of crude oil, which harms end-users like America's trucking industry."   
      
    After I released records last month that documented the role of   
   speculators, I was criticized last week by two former members of the   
   Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).   I put the information   
   on my Web site for three reasons:   
      
    First, the American people have a right to know why oil prices are   
   artificially high. The CFTC report proved that when oil prices climbed   
   in 2008 to more than $140 a barrel, WALL STREET SPECULATORS dominated   
   the oil futures market.   
   Goldman Sachs alone bought and sold MORE THAN 860 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL   
   in the summer of 2008, with no intention of using a drop for any purpose   
   other than to make a quick buck.   
      
    Wall Street, of course, wants to hide this information.   They don't   
   want the American people to know the extent to which speculators keep   
   oil prices artificially high, and the great damage that does to our   
   economy.   
      
    After the information became public, it was suggested that some on Wall   
   Street may stop trading in the oil futures market. Good!   
   Second, Congress recognized last year that excessive oil speculation   
   must end.   
      
    The Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation required the CFTC to   
   eliminate, prevent or diminish excessive oil speculation by Jan. 17,   
   2011.   Months after that deadline, the commission STILL HAS FAILED TO   
   ENFORCE THE LAW, and speculators still are making out like bandits.   
      
    Third, the commodity regulator's claim that they cannot end excessive   
   oil speculation because they lack sufficient data is nonsense.   As   
   the information I released makes clear, the commission has been   
   collecting this information for more than three years.   
      The time for studying is over.   It is time for action.   
      
    I agree with former commissioners James E. Newsome and Fred Hatfield in   
   one respect.   Trust in government is at an all-time low.   That's   
   not because Washington is too heavy-handed with Wall Street.   Quite   
   the contrary!   
      
    The American people are angry and disillusioned because they see our   
   government act boldly to protect Wall Street CEOs but not ordinary   
   Americans.   
   When Wall Street needed a $700 billion bailout, the government was there   
   for them.   When working families need an end to excessive oil   
   speculation and real relief at the gas pump, THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED   
   TO ACT.   
      
    The same Dodd-Frank bill that required commodity regulators to limit   
   speculators included my amendment calling for an audit of the Federal   
   Reserve from Dec. 1, 2007, to July 21, 2010 – the period of the   
   financial crisis.   What we learned was that the Fed provided $16   
   TRILLION IN SECRET, LOW-INTEREST LOANS to every major American financial   
   institution and to other central banks, large corporations and wealthy   
   individuals.   
      
    The audit provision was vigorously opposed by the Federal Reserve   
   chairman.   It was right, however, that the veil of secrecy at the Fed   
   was lifted and the American people learned about its actions.   
      
    Now it is appropriate to lift the veil of secrecy in the oil futures   
   market.   The American people have a right to know how much excessive   
   speculation has driven up oil prices and which Wall Street firms are   
   doing it.   
                       _   
         The writer is an independent senator from Vermont.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)