Editorial: Oil Trading

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, June, 2008

It's frustrating enough when gas prices soar due to the unseen forces of global supply and demand. But it's downright unfair when Wall Street speculators contribute to rising prices at the pump. There's growing evidence that investors looking to make a fast buck are causing oil prices to rise faster than can be explained by ordinary market forces.

Congress, however, can do something about the situation. It can help to ease this problem, because it helped to create this monster. In December 2000, Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton shortly before he left office in January 2001. Few people realized at the time that a loophole had been tucked into this 262-page bill at the last minute by then-Sen. Phil Gramm...