{"id":11649,"date":"2012-03-27T12:40:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T16:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=11649"},"modified":"2012-03-27T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T16:40:18","slug":"gas-prices-rising-why-gop-wont-address-real-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/03\/gas-prices-rising-why-gop-wont-address-real-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas prices rising: Why GOP won’t address real cause"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>
In this file photo from last month, Michael Morris replaces the nozzle after putting gas in his car in Philadelphia. Gas prices are rising on Wall Street speculation that supplies will tighten in the future. Alex Brandon\/AP\/File<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gas prices are rising not because of increased demand but because Wall Street is betting on higher gas prices.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Robert Reich, Guest blogger<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gas prices continue to rise, which is finally giving Republicans an issue. Mitt Romney is demanding the President open up more domestic drilling; the super PAC behind Rick Santorum just released a new ad in Louisiana blasting the President on gas prices; and the GOP is attacking the White House on the Keystone XL Pipeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the rise in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It has everything to do with America\u2019s continuing failure to adequately regulate Wall Street. But don\u2019t hold your breath waiting for Republicans to tell the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve noted before, oil supplies aren\u2019t being squeezed. Over 80 percent of America\u2019s energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. In fact, we\u2019re starting to become an energy exporter. Demand for oil isn\u2019t rising in any event. Demand is down in the U.S. compared to last year at this time, and global demand is still moderate given the economic slowdowns in Europe and China.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices in the future \u2014 and that betting is causing prices to rise. The Street is laying odds that unrest in Syria will spill over into other countries or that tensions with Iran will affect the Persian Gulf, and that global demand will pick up as American consumers bounce back to life.<\/span><\/p>\n

These bets are pushing up oil prices because Wall Street firms and other big financial players now dominate oil trading.<\/span><\/p>\n

Financial speculators historically accounted for about 30 percent of oil contracts, producers and end users for about 70 percent. But today speculators account for 64 percent of all contracts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission \u2014 the federal agency that regulates trading in oil futures, among other commodities \u2014 warns that too few financial players control too much of the oil market. This allows them to push oil prices higher and higher \u2014 not only on the basis of their expectations about the future but also expectations about how high other speculators will drive the price.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil \u2014 and you\u2019re paying.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chilton estimates that drivers of small cars like Honda Civics are paying an extra $7.30 every time they fill up \u2014 and that money is going into the pockets of Wall Street speculators. Drivers of larger vehicles like the Ford Explorer are paying speculators $10.41 when they fill up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Funny, but I don\u2019t hear Republicans rail against Wall Street speculators. Could this have anything to do with the fact that hedge funds and money managers are bankrolling the GOP as never before?<\/span><\/p>\n

Wall Street isn\u2019t bankrolling Democrats nearly as much this time around because the Street is still smarting from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law pushed by the Democrats, and from the president\u2019s offhand remark in 2010 calling the denizens of the Street \u201cfat cats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is trying to limit how much speculators can bet in oil futures \u2014 a power it was given by Dodd-Frank. It issued a rule in October, but it won\u2019t take effect for another year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wall Street has gone to court to stop the rule. It\u2019s already won a stay.<\/span><\/p>\n

As rising gas prices start wagging the election-year dog, the President should let America know what\u2019s really causing prices to rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gas prices are rising not because of increased demand but because Wall Street is betting on higher gas prices. By Robert Reich, Guest blogger Gas..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,190,166,21,181,84,97],"tags":[229,197,347],"class_list":["post-11649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-elections","category-government","category-international","category-labor","category-statements","category-us-news","tag-economic-exploitation","tag-imperialism","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0318-gasprices_full_600_11649_732bf.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}