Monday, April 13, 2009

They Cared For A Day

June 2, 2008, at a senate hearing on oil specualtion, Michael Greenberger testified how investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, were "continuing and repeating the 'subprime' crash of the securities markets, and all their derivatives, on the commodities markets" He went on to note "I find it highly ironic that when you control the price of oil, you can 'predict' when it will go from $130 to $200 a barrel". At a prior hearing on May 20, senators grilled the CFTC for allowing much of the speculative trading and urged it to "muscle up". In fact, much of the speculative oil trading is done through the Intercontinental Commodity Exchange (ICE), headquartered in Atlanta, and under the jurisdiction of the British Financial Services Authority (This is no joke)

10 months later, the price of oil is a third of what is was last summer, Senator Stevens has been indicted, convicted and released, and we have a new president who wants to put the guy who helped invent these loopholes in charge of the CTFC. Well hell, the price of oil is down now, no one cares, we can get away with it. Thank God for Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, who has put a hold on the nomination on these very grounds. Someone is still awake.

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