Anywhere from $15 to $25 in the price of oil is caused by speculators.
indeed. and the administration is totally detached on this issue, they will do nothing to challenge what is going on, and the president's approval rating will fall as pump prices go up.
Speculators cannot really affect price in the long run.
They add to demand by buying oil to sell later. This drives the prices up.
They think the price will be higher in the future. But if they buy now based on this belief, that makes the price now higher, and the price in the future lower.
So they're just smoothing out the curve.