In one bold act, Congress could reduce the price of oil overnight by restoring regulation to the money grubbing stockbrokers that are trading in oil at the expense of the American economy and public. Instead, Republicans as usual have tried to shift the blame of oil prices to Democrats by focusing on offshore drilling, something that would provide no real relief in oil prices. M

Closing Enron Loophole Would Drop Oil Prices 25% - 50% Overnight
Jon Ponder | Jun. 22, 2008

Go to this link for the rest of the article, transcript of Keith Olderman interview on this topic, and video of interview:
Pensito Review Closing Enron Loophole Would Drop Oil Prices 25% - 50% Overnight

The way Republicans tell it, the minute we start drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and elsewhere, the price of gas will go down. In fact, it would take five years after the ban on offshore drilling was lifted for oil production to start, and, if it were lifted right now, in 22 years domestic oil production would have increased by only seven percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. Even so, “because oil prices are determined on the international market … any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” (Source: Center for American Progress.)

Republicans have shifted blame for high gas prices from Bush to the Democrats and their opposition to offshore drilling, and all it cost them was the credibility of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

On the other hand, Congress and George Bush could take a step tomorrow that would create a drop in oil prices of between 25 and 50 percent overnight, simply by closing the Enron Loophole.

This is according to testimony before a Senate Committee two weeks ago by Michael Greenberger, the former director of Trading & Markets for the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), the government board that oversees commodities markets:

“Yes, overnight [closing the Enron Loophole] will bring down the price of crude oil to get at least a 25 percent drop in the cost of oil and a corresponding drop in the cost of gasoline. Some people estimate 50 percent.”

Greenberger’s testimony was brought to light by an investigation into the Enron Loophole by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last week. (A transcript of Olbermann’s report follows.)

The Enron Loophole is the nickname for a provision written into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 that was drafted by lobbyists for Enron and inserted in the bill by then Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) that deregulated an aspect of the market Enron sought to exploit with its “Enron On-Line” trading program, the first Internet-based commodities transaction system. Phil Gramm is now a key economic adviser for the John McCain campaign.


Update: Obama Proposes Closing the Enron Loophole:
[Barack] Obama campaign’s said today that he plans to ease the impact of rising gas prices by cracking down on excessive energy speculation through closing the so-called “Enron Loophole.”

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National Debt =

BUMP

Well, the core problem with the out of control oil speculation now has a name, the Enron Loophole." Now we know where the public outrage needs to be brought to bear on our legislators.

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National Debt =

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National Debt =

I remain pessemistic that the loophole will get closed. Politics, y'know.

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January 20, 2009 - The end of an error.

Public pressure needs to be brought to bear. For starters, this issue is "below the radar" and basically un reported in the major news media sources. It needs to somehow get put on the radar. Olbermann is currently the only one commenting on this.

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National Debt =

We'll need a veto-proof majority in both houses to make it pass, because I believe it's a sure bet Bush will veto any such legislation. "Free" market and all that. LOL.

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January 20, 2009 - The end of an error.

Here is the IRONY of it all.. Nobody was bitching about this "Loop Hole" in 2001-2007. They only started bitching when they (Democrats) could find something that an Adviser of John McCain help write. Where are the Democrats blaming President Clinton on signing the CFMA of 2000?

*looking around* *checking over my left shoulder* *checking over my right shoulder*

Nope, no blame to President Clinton. Hmm? Wonder why?

But even this idea of "Enron loop hole" is flawed as basic facts, which seem to bypass most here.. shows that 2001-2007 prices didn't increase at a dramatic rate.

But I can show you the value of the dollar and it's down fall during this time compared to the rise in Oil Prices during the same period.

As the dollar loses value, it has the biggest and most direct impact in Oil prices. Same if the dollar gained value. We saw this in early trading today (you can see it everyday).. The dollar was strong in the early hours of trading (causing Oil to be down almost 5 dollars), then when the Fed said it would do nothing, the dollar weakened against other Foreign Currencies (mainly the Euro and Pound) and the early lows for Oil went away to about 2 dollars off (to $134) instead of the $131 it was trading at 1:59 pm.

A strong currency would have Oil down to $80 a barrel.. or about $2.30 a gallon. But because the Fed screwed the pooch once again ( common theme for them), Oil will be about $150 by the 4th of July or a little after.

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Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

And he is wrong, He's an Obama tool..

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Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

The devaluation of the dollar is a very important aspect of the increases in gas prices.

The decrease in the dollar caused many in the market to start buying oil to offset the losses from the devaluation. That caused more to jump on the band wagon and the price of oil shot up.

Another aspect was the housing crisis that forced a lot of market funds to start buying oil again to off set losses.

Its the use of oil futures to offset the losses caused by Bush economic policies of deregulation and the huge national debt that has lowered the value of the dollar and has caused the increase in gas prices.

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Walt Whitman
"I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences."

True.

Not really, The Commodity Market is totally different then Stocks or Mutual Funds. In the Commodity Market you are buying Contracts that will be sold no matter what at a mutual price. I'll explain this one more time (probably more then that).. I.E. Someone (You) buys a Contract for August at $132, Now August comes along (and Prices have increased to $135) and another buyer (say Exxon) wants to buy the Contract ( get the Oil into the system) at $135 but the Seller (You) wants to sell it at $137. Huge difference in price right? No, The Seller and the Buyer will reach a median price and exchange the Contract for $136 (this will be set price for the lowest bid for August Contracts).

When you buy a Contract, you have to sell that Contract for the month you bought it for, you can't hold on to it.

With Stocks and Mutual Funds you can hold onto it until you die and never be obligated to sell it. Gold, Wheat, Corn, Soy and so on works the way of Oil. The value of the Dollar and Inflation is issue about rising prices.

Again, its not going to cause a huge rise in prices. No where near the 30% or 50% that Democrats are saying. Its more like 10 or 15%. The Dollar is what matters in Commodities. Its why I am heavy in metals and will be until the Fed gets its act together before I sell.

It offsets some of the lost, not all of it. If this was about offsetting loses Oil would be $200 a barrel right now.

Bush didn't deregulated Commodities, President Clinton did. National debt plays a role, but we've always had a National Debt, just under President Clinton, He hid it in Inter-Governmental borrowing (i.e. DoJ loans HHS 3 billion dollars). The money was borrowed from the Fed but only reported after the next year Budget, which hid the loan.

The Dollar isn't down just because of National Debt, it's also Consumer Debt (from Americans), lack of Manufacturing (which started to leave under President Clinton after GATT and NAFTA), low interest rates which doesn't help bring in Foreign Investments (buying the T-Bonds)..

__________________
Pioneers are walking all around singing songs about Lenin and they should be shot for it.

Handlebars

"If you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror"- V

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken

come on you know you wanna play football..

Beagán agus a rá go maith.

Economic Left/Right: 3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87