Are you certain? I’ve been hearing about some sort of nucular* program in Iran.

* Intentional misspelling, I know that its spelled nukeyalar ;-)

The same thing that drives all bubbles: Money chasing easy returns. We have gone from a stock bubble to a housing bubble to a commodities bubble. The business of America is no longer business, it’s bubbles.

Uranium went from $7 to nearly $140 and is now back to $60. It was not because of Peak Uranium.

Well, if “we” is defined as Code Pink and World Can’t Wait types, I suppose that’s right. If “we” includes me, then there’s no agreement.

One U.S. objective (dating back to Clinton) was removing Saddam from power. Done. As for Iraq generally, following the surge the situation has improved dramatically, as even the NYT has recently acknowledged. You may not think the gains have been worth the price, but there definitely have been gains.

Too bad he is wrong about speculators. Peak Oil is the problem not speculators who are just reacting to a real oil shortage in the export market.

He is still going to be the next President. The old man doesn’t have a chance. Too confused and confusing. But that is what happens when senility sets in.

At this point, we can all agree that the US occupation of Iraq has been a complete failure. What do you think would happen if the US/Israel attacked Iran? A much more populous country with highly educated people. The Iranians have the will and ability to shut down a large portion, if not the majority, of Mideastern oil production in response to an attack. They have managed to put together a very scary dead man switch(fail deadly version).

So what’s driving oil speculation? How about:

A loss of the majority of US military forces currently in the Mideast.

Shut down of Mideast old production/shipping.

World economic recession.

A greatly strengthened Russia.

All of the above are very real risks associated with an Iran attack. The people on Wall Street know it.

I beg to differ. Futures trading provides a service to us all. It creates price discovery and exposes the fragile supply/demand balance years into the future.

Why don’t oil companies and OPEC countries sell massive amounts of futures if prices are so inflated?

Apparently either they don’t want to or they can’t. Maybe OPEC is aiming for even higher prices? Maybe the oil producers are really tapped out?

What we need is alternative energy and some serious demand destruction.
Complaining about futures is not helpful with that.

I’ll put my faith in the US companies over those of the other Gulf (of Mexico) nations to drill responsibly.

It’s not so much that it’d take five years, its that, even if it was done, it might not have been worth doing in the first place because of:
a) Immediate environmental damage
b) Money diverted from energy conservation
c) It’s still more unlocked carbon
d) It just puts off a problem that we’re going to have to deal with eventually.

There’s a theory that we can drill and research alternative fuels, but I don’t think that’s as ready an option as people want to believe. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention, and if we take away the need for reduced consumption, we take aware much of the pressure to innovate.

Anybody who wants to have a chance at winning those states, and the entire election, this November would be an idiot to not give a little love to the (sub aquatic) corn farmers of Iowa and our unified auto workers of Michigan. So I guess this proves that when comes to corn, Mr. Obama is no idiot.

If Obama weren’t in the pockets of the ethanol producers, he’d know that solar is the wave of the future.

I wanted Bill Richardson. Energy secretary under Clinton, diplomat, fiery politician but smart guy and runs my state well. I guess America’s ready for a black President but it’s not ready for a good President quite yet…

Edit: PCH101, you’ve got a point. But I sure hope his campaign trumpets other alternative energy sources too. With solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, nuclear, plug-in hybrid electric cars, and hydrogen there are a lot more ways to help energy consumption than just corn-based fuel.

Thanks God for capitalism.

Obama the savior would probably like to see that sort of profiting reeled in. Fine. Let’s see him try. Maybe the country needs more stupid pet tricks from the politicians to convince them we need to take power away from these people instead of trusting them with more.

Pols are good at taking your money and giving it away, they know little about economics and nothing about science, engineering and chemistry.

How much longer and how many more dead soldiers before we get to steal Iraq’s oil?

The sad thing is that many Iranian people are well educated, sophisticated, and cosmopolitan and they LIKE us.

How do we escape from the religious crazies on both sides and the oil companies?

Problem #1 is that you can buy oil futures for pennies on the dollar, and that a million “hedgers” are now using a commodity to hedge their portfolio. In fact, the market designed to mitigate risk between the actual buyers and sellers of product has become “The 2008 California Gold Rush” for millions of people, at the consumers expense.

The buyers and sellers of the product, who actually make the product and take delivery of the product don’t even constitute a tiny percentage of the market now.

Suppose I want to hedge the value of my stock portfolio against rising oil prices by buying an oil future. Is the government going to disallow this? And leave me exposed to rising oil prices?

The truth is futures are derivatives. Without genuine concern about future oil supply, they wouldn’t be a problem.

Now if he can just pick up the ball on domestic production and pushing hard for other alternative energy sources, he might do something if he wins.

McCain’s idea for a $300 Million “X-Prize” for battery breakthrough is a great idea, but that’s a whole different matter.