Control of the Weather (Discussion)

My last post "Control of the Weather" was distributed on March 23. I was greatly gratified when Eric Offner, impresario of Jazz concerts, author and lecturer on the law, humanist and mental health advocate (See here for a description of Offner in Who's Who in America) seconded the compliments from Pearl Duncan writing:

I agree with Miss Duncan. I learn a lot from your articles.

And then added:

Today I disagree with you. The price of gas is set by speculators. I would outlaw speculation on most commodities.

To which I responded:

I am glad to receive your disagreement. I receive disagreements so rarely, and yet differences of opinion are useful in arriving at intelligent conclusions.  

Your view on speculators is not unique and you may have noted that in the discussion on the PBS NewsHour referred to in my post and accessible here, Daniel Weiss, of the Center for American Progress (a left wing think tank) mentions Wall Street speculators as one of the causes for the high prices, and speculators are a favorite target of the Left for everything that may go wrong in our economy. But who are speculators? They are the people who buy and sell stocks and commodities. They are people like me, who invest in the stock market in the hope of making a gain, but sometimes sustain a loss. They are the union and other pension funds who invest in the market. They are as much to blame, or rather deserve credit when prices go down. Without them there would be no market in anything, because all traders, and that in effect means all merchants are speculators. You say you "would outlaw speculation in most commodities,” but you can't do that without outlawing all trading in commodities. 

They are a convenient scapegoat whenever anything undesirable happens in the market, but they reflect market conditions, they don't create them. 

What I have not mentioned, heretofore, and which needs mention, is that another factor that drives up world oil prices is the saber rattling about Iran. Netanyahu with his threats drives up the price of oil, and so do the Republicans with their demands that we use military force, again. They play a clever political game, because the are complicit in driving up the price of oil, and then seek to profit politically from the higher prices, which they helped to generate, and finally Obama himself, when he says we will use military force if that is necessary to stop Iran from getting the bomb, a position he was forced into, as the only way to keep Netanyahu from his own military action. And of course Iran, every time they talk of closing the Strait of Hormuz. 

Surprisingly, OPEC, which used to be the culprit in past oil rises, is not complicit this time.  

Next time I want to tackle a very important and complicated subject, i.e. the role that race plays in American life and politics. It will be entitled: “It’s All About Race”, but I am postponing that discussion because it will, of necessity, be long, and multi-parted, and so, rather that append it to this concluding discussion on the price of oil, I will let it go till next time.

Comments, questions, or corrections, are welcome and will be responded to and distributed with attribution, unless the writer requests that he/she not be identified.