Finally...

Someone else is finally asking the same questions I am concerning crude oil prices... in this short but well-written little piece.

While I agree that having Obama approve the more than 40 drill permit requests that are being held up and that would, if approved, allow the US to increase domestic oil production by more than 30% (and increase the amount of oil we make ourselves by MORE than what we get from Iran and Iraq combined)... what the author missed was the increasingly obvious need to end speculation pricing on crude oil.

The largest winners in the speculation pricing game right now are the companies that make the gasoline and sell it at the pumps... with no "cost" to them (at least not in production and refining), they find revenues increased already this year (and it isn't even April yet) by 22% over the last quarter of last year. How can consumption of gasoline and oil be DOWN while revenues go UP... without the "spectre" of gouging coming into the equation?

Ryan has no patience for my rants about "too large a profit margin"... and perhaps justifiably so... but what is driving prices right now is NOT free market economics. It is manipulation of financial subtleties to garner larger profits at consumer expense, with no measurable market-driven actions to account for the increase.

Even if 99.99% of ALL government regulation of economic practices could be proven to hurt economic growth in this country, I am convinced that THIS lack of regulation is costing the struggling US economy more than we can measure by allowing fear and speculation to determine what tomorrow's prices will or won't be, rather than what is available for consumption versus what is demanded by consumers.