Show Trial Planned for Energy Markets

The US House of Representatives will hold hearings on energy markets trying to determine who is causing oil prices to rise. The anti-market investigation will blame hedge funds and investment banks for manipulating the markets to make oil go to record levels. Oil is too global a commodity for speculators to determine its price. We know, for instance, that oil prices are high not only in spot markets but in futures markets, not only on the Nymex but in the UK (Brent), Dubai, Malaysia, and numerous smaller, less liquid markets not accessible to speculators. Are we to believe that the conspirators somehow entered all these markets at once? The argument for speculation also ignores the fact that numerous other commodities are soaring in price, namely gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, iron ore, tin, corn, rice, etc, etc. Did the oil conspirators cause all that, too? The commodities that do not trade on futures exchanges (making them less susceptible to speculation) have risen slightly more than exchange traded commodities, indicating that fundamentals are driving prices higher. The House show trial is surely designed to bamboozle the general public. The one entity that engages in activities directly linked to the scarcity of oil vis a vis dollars, the Federal Reserve, appears to be exempt from government scrutiny.