Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Saturday, July 21, 2012

FORGET LIBOR-GATE: Oil Market Manipulation Is Far Worse

Since the Global Community all the sudden seems to be preoccupied with Market manipulation even though the authorities knew it was a problem for over 5 years with Libor Rate Fixing. It is high time authorities look at the Crude Oil market which has been manipulated for the last decade and all the sophisticated participants know it is rigged or artificially higher than the fundamentals of the economy dictate. Consumers are paying an easy $35 dollars per barrel over what they would otherwise doll out for a barrel of oil if fund managers didn`t use the benchmark futures contracts as their own personal ATMs.

Just a month ago Crude Oil WTI was $78 a barrel and today it is $93. Do you think the fundamentals changed one bit to merit this price swing? Nope! Supply levels are all at record highs around the world. Is it Iran? Please!! It is all about the money flows, nobody takes delivery anymore. Assets have become one big correlated risk trade. Risk On, Risk Off. If the Dow is up a hundred, you can bet crude is up at least a dollar! It has nothing to do with fundamentals, inventory levels, supply disruptions, etc. It is all about fund flows.

More

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about the silver and gold spot price? Totally fixed. There are contracts for silver and gold for which there is no metal!

lmclain said...

People in the middle class are pursued relentlessly, harrassed, and eventually imprisoned for manipulating their meager incomes with illegal tax schemes or for failure to report (by comparison) TINY amounts of income. THESE bankers and their cohorts in Congress and the stock market, are openly LAUGHING at our helplessness. Why? Because the payoffs and bribes have solidified their position and they are essentially untouchable as they rape and pillage. Once in a while (a GREAT while...) ONE of them will be sacrificed to show "we, the people" that "the system is working"....and all the sheeple cheer and then go back to sleep (or go back to work and watch their stocks, 401(k)'s, and CD's, drop off the cliff. Take these bloodsucking criminals out in the street and execute them.There could be OTHER punishments; thats just MY suggestion...