Depressed Metabolism

You are browsing the archives of "Oil Futures."

As Americans increasingly feel the pain of long-distance commuting, economic ignorance of politicians combines with our perceived inalienable right to low gas prices to find a scapegoat in the world’s most hated minority in bad economic times, the speculator.
As the economist and political philosopher Anthony de Jasay recently pointed out, politicians seem to believe that [...]

Economic illiteracy and the human bias to look for a scapegoat conspire to single out speculators in oil futures as the reason for high oil prices.  Exploiting this ignorance about economics, airline executives call on Congress to curb excessive speculation in one of the most blatant examples of corporate socialism in recent history. What is [...]