Instant view: Obama team to probe oil market manipulation (What a Laughable Deflection)

CNBC ^ | 04/21/11

[MissesBush]

Obama is a master con artist deflecting attention from HIS role in high gas prices and his anti-drilling agenda including ignoring 2 federal court orders compelling him to resume offshore drilling via this thinnly guised political ruse. And the numbskulls in the audience in Nevada where he announced this actually applauded like the drones that they are. It always comes back to this with these Dems--investigate oil companies and speculators to deflect from their radical, anti-drilling agenda and what it's done to cause the run up in gas prices. There have been 30 or more such investigations, including the one the Obama Injustice Dept launched last month, and none of them have ever turned up price manipulation.

[Jeff Chandler]

Now we will see plenty of Republican politicians jump on the anti-oil prodcution band wagon.

Wait for it . . . wait for it . . .

[bluedressman]

just the next phase in his War on Energy

[screaminsunshine]

BOR the TV idiot is with Obama on this.

[longtermmemmory]

This is a joke BECAUSE:

NOBODY IS CHECKING THE INSURANCE REGISTRY OF SHIPS.

Ships are being used as shadow storage. Unless they are looking into the shadow inventory then Obama is just as complicit.

[Darksheare]

Need the text and soundbite of Obama stating that the price of fuel MUST go up to make alternative energy more price competetive.

[JPG]

DRILL, BABY DRILL!! It's not just a slogan anymore.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

There was some guy on BOReilly last night that explained exactly what Obama could do.

Obama will send a turtle to install a unicorn and spend a zillion doing it.

[Owen]

Odds that there will be a skeptical geologist on this investigation team?

ZERO.

[OldDeckHand]

If you look at the numbers, the recent spike in price has almost nothing to do with lack of supply/production. In fact, most of the production in the Middle East is at 80% of capacity. And as we all know, it's a global oil market so increased production in the US fields which produce a negligible amount of oil relative to the world supply, would have almost no perceptible effect on pump-prices.

The two single biggest reasons the prices at the pump are rising: speculation and a weakening dollar. That's it.

"There have been 30 or more such investigations, including the one the Obama Injustice Dept launched last month, and none of them have ever turned up price manipulation.

That's just not true.

[businessprofessor]

I am surprised Obama took so long to start this witchhunt. Speculators are a watchword of the left. It is impossible to have any reasonable interaction with the left on energy prices. They see conspiracy everywhere except of course where it actually occurs (labor cartels, Democrats, trial lawyers, Obama, environmental activists, ...). The left is positive that the increase in oil and gas prices is totally due to evil speculators along with Cheney and Bush.

[Owen]

Why not have a geologist skeptical of Saudi reserves / production claims on the team?

Why? Because he’ll say DRILL. DRILL DESPERATELY. There is no other hope.

[AmericanVictory]

Which is accompanied by a steady beat of “green economy” fraud. Will they be probing this manipulation of the market using fraud?

[Darksheare]

Wasn’t Obama caught stating they had to use price signals, i.e. artificially inflating prices?

[Lockbox]

Excuse me, but what about the drop in the value of the dollar. Since oil is priced in US Dollars and the dollar has lost value, the price of oil increases. So who is really responsible for the loss of the US Dollar’s value, could it be the One who increases our debt?????

[kiryandil]

So, when do the cuffs go on Ben Bernanke?

[avacado]

He need only look into the mirror to find the manipulator.

[MissesBush]

Yes, it is true. No Congressional investigation has ever turned out evidence of oil company price manipulation. Sorry. And yes, when you have demand going up but supply remaining stagnant, prices will go up. And demand has been rising with supply remaining stagnant. Speculators wouldn’t make a dime off oil if they couldn’t bet that demand would increase and supplies would tighten. By the way, the psychological impact of unrest in the Middle East also is enough to drive up the price of oil even if supply doesn’t change.

[DBeers]

The idiot marxist first sent lawyers in after the BP oil spill. He is clueless and only worried about appearances.

He fights against the evil capitalist oppressors and ushers in a socialist utopia --in his mind only and in the minds of the useful idiots that buy the lies he sells from his telepromptered leftist lemonade stand.

The marxist is an epic failure.

[OldDeckHand]

"Speculators are a watchword of the left."

While that may be true, that doesn't necessarily mean the argument is wholly without merit.

In the summer of 2008, in the face of global shrinking economy and at a time of increased oil production, prices continued to rise. How is that possible absent some kind of market manipulation?

Now, maybe that manipulation is just the result of unusual, but honest, market pressures. Or, perhaps it's something else. Personally, in 2008, I thought it was "something else", and I think it's possible it's something else today, especially considering where supplies currently are.

Having said that, I think Obama would be much more likely to find a goblin if he looked at the main reason for price spikes - a falling dollar. Of course, the goblin he'd find in that mess looks him square in the face while shaving every morning.