I didn't read all of everything posted here but I wanted to relay to you a story I was told by a Wachovia Securities administrator back when gas and
diesel were at their highest.
Speculators were
buying oil 3 and 4 weeks out but never taking
delivery until the
price reached the point here they could make a profit. With all that
oil sold on paper it was creating a shortage inturn driving the
price up. That's obviously the extremely abridged version.
What I am concerned about now is all this bailout
money the banks got. Several banks have already bought all the oil they possibly could and have it sitting in tankers
offshore waiting for the price to come up. Basically doing the same thing the speculators did, except they are taking
delivery. The kick in the pants is many of the big banks are also involved in the bulk/tanker
shipping industry which means the cost of keeping it on a tanker
offshore is a lot less and they can keep it there indefinitely. Wells Fargo is one of the banks playing this
game.