Frank Kogan

While "listening" to all the songs streamed on the Camp Rock MySpace (so far, they're mostly borderline: disappointingly weak performances of somewhat catchy material), I've been reading Paul Krugman's blog, where he's been posting a lot recently about the relation between oil speculation and the rising price of oil. Basically, he says there's no relation - no evidence that the current price of oil has anything to do with speculation, since the only way speculation can cause a rise in actual oil prices is if someone is withholding inventory. And there's no evidence of this. Here's an excerpt:

( A futures contract is a bet about the future price. It has no, zero, nada direct effect on the spot price. )

(He points out elsewhere that conservatives, who normally are ready to praise markets out of hand, are wanting to blame "oil speculators" because otherwise they'd have to admit that demand will continue to increase in relation to supply unless we make an effort to find alternative sources of energy and to cut back on energy use.)