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Damn Speculators

Right now the spot price of a barrel of crude oil is $99. The price of a future, for delivery in 4 years, is $89. You ARE all of course aware that “speculators” are as active in the market today as a few months ago when futures prices were well in advance of spot prices. I have a theory for those of you who wished we had more bipartisanship in politics.

Ban the teaching of economics.

Think about it. In the past month I have heard Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly damning speculators in oil markets. I have heard President Obama railing on them, to the point that he has sicked Bernie Sanders on us to promote a bill to ban it (yep). Nothing unites people like economic illiteracy. You see the same thing with all of this “Buy American” nonsense. I’d elaborate, but we’re in finals right now.

4 Responses to “Damn Speculators”

  1. J Storrs Hall says:

    If you want to see knowledge available on every street corner, and drugs priced through the roof and so watered down they had little effect in the real world … declare a War on Education and institute a Department of Drugs.

  2. Brent says:

    Economic LITERACY?… I ‘d be satisfied if everyone just knew “alot” was actually two words…

  3. I noted that the sidebar has prices for gold and silver both weaker than a year ago. Gold is threatening to fall below $1600. Silver is below $30 and pushing $25. Given the historical roles of hard assets – and the political views of those who buy them at retail – would those be further indicia of economic recovery from 2008?

    In any case, the point is noted. It is convenient to blame speculators when prices rise on what you want to buy, but no one is handing out praise when prices fall.

  4. Harry says:

    Long ago — no, I did not personally know Jay Gould — I learned to discount predictions, especially in the financial press, about prices. This does not mean that one cannot become a successful arbitrageur. I do know it is very dangerous to jump to conclusions.

    The prices of gold and silver on the right bar represent an approximation of the value of the US Dollar, namely what it will fetch today.

    By any measure, our government has cheapened our currency much, by how much is debatable, but the price today, not how it fluctuated during the day, makes the point.

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