One big contributor to the housing crash in 2008 was speculation. One of the biggest drivers of oil prices is price speculation. Now President Obama wants to do something about it:
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to “reconstitute” a task force examining oil and gas speculation.
But the task force, which Obama initially proposed last April when a big spike in gas prices sparked public outrage, has met only four or five times, mostly around the time it was created, and has not reported to the public on its activities, McClatchy News Service reported. Critics say the group has fallen short of its mission thus far.
While this is good news, I can’t help but wonder why Obama has been so reactionary on speculation instead of taking a proactive stance. Speculation is like the entire country paying for a few rich people’s trips to Vegas. They are gambling and their assets are all ours – our economy and cost of living. It’s time to put an end to this crap once and for all. Let the actual market dictate price, not a few greedy gamblers.