Traditional markets don't apply to oil

Paraphrasing Thoreau: Fence Post Letters have been hacking at the branches of evil oil prices but none have struck at the roots. Supply and demand economics works with commodities in a fair market that is freely traded. The system does not work when oil production is limited by the OPEC cartel and Wall Street corrupts the free market. The spike in oil prices dates back to the commodities act of 2000.

A lame duck congress at the end of the Clinton administration yielded to Enron lobbyists and legalized futures in oil and energy. The Bush Administration thrived with the Cheney energy policy. The oil industry loved the high oil prices. Hedge funds and traders in Morgan Stanley, and others, got rich but produced no oil. Democrat watchdogs watched the farce happen and did nothing. It appears that Will Rogers was right: "We have the best Congress that money can buy."

The record shows that last summer while demand for oil was going down and supply was going up, oil prices jumped to new highs. Changes in supply and demand for oil take time but oil prices were jumping daily as traders bid up the market. We can do something about the situation. Citizens are urged to contact their representatives and demand that the Commodities Act of 2000 be modified. Hedge funds, derivatives of all types, and oil futures should be illegal. No amount of government regulation can make the system work. The majority voted for change and now we need changes.

Problems in housing and the financial market are similar to the problems with oil. Repeatedly the Bush Administration said the economy was strong, then overnight we find the country in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. A conservative administration initiated a massive path to socialism.

Russell C. W. Crom

Mount Prospect