“And please don’t start talking to me about economics, I’m better versed than most. I’m looking at results and outcomes here.”
Drawing conclusions about results and outcomes has nothing to do with economics. Right.
And you’re so well-versed in economics that you don’t even want to talk about them. Right.
I hardly need to convince anybody on these boards about my knowledge of economics, but I sure don’t need to waste my time with some hayseed telling me about supply and demand. In a completely free (and totally nonexistent) market, speculation might act to stabilize prices. In the real world, the one with the birds and the light and the air and stuff, speculators destabilize such markets, or at least elevate prices and create disequilibria. If you want to talk a free market, you need to get on a plane and talk to a guy who looks like he stole the tablecloth from Pizza Hut as headgear. I’m talking about what is, not what could ideally be.