At the Gas Pump.

He was definitely a later part of the problem. But the problem of BIG oil goes back a lot further. As of the present time much of the Federal and States legislators are in the pockets, big time, of Big oil, so they are not inclined to stop or in any way hinder the Hedge fund speculators or any other rules or regulation which might affect their funding. The speculation was opened up by the legislature one late night in the late 1990's when the commodities exchange rules were amended to remove the requirement that a percentage of all purchases must accept delivery on all critical commodities which included oil, steel, silver etc. Until we get BIG MONEY out of our government there will not be any change, and believe me most all politicians are heavily involved across all parties.

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Whenever a conservative utters the term "Common Sense approach"... grab your wallet, your ass, and your girls, because the sombitch is about to do something damned nasty to all three of them.

You can't easily divide diamonds and dividing a diamond destroys some of its value. If diamond is damaged it loses value, gold does not. Gold collector coins would, but 1oz of gold is still 1oz gold. Diamonds aren't particularly fungible either with each having its own unique coloring, flaws, etc. gold is gold. You need to have a good deal of knowledge to know if one diamond is worth more than another. You put gold on scale or simply read what is imprinted on it (provided that it is from a legitimate source) There are also simple tests for purity if you aren't dealing in coins minted by a reliable source.

Actually, they are used as currency in some special senses. A friend of mine used to sell "investment" diamonds in Argentina. They were only investments in the sense that Scott used...accumulate your wealth via investment, hard work, and a little black market currency dealing, and put the diamonds in your shirt pocket and run with them.

There is one other thing that you didnt mention. Diamonds are not widely and evenly distributed in nature. The USA has only one blue clay pipe that I know of. We were much better gifted with gold and oil.

So what's new? Did you think that everyone in colonial America lived in houses with names like Montpellier, Mount Vernon, Monticello etc?

The USA has always been a plutocracy.

Politicians are actors hired to perform politicians that don't understand that don't last long

News today confirmed that there is NO petroleum shortage in the USA at this time, nor in fact in the world.

We have a surplus.

The only reason that gasoline is this high is that speculators are toying with the market.

Only way I know to screw them is to walk, ride a bike, car pool, etc. Dont give these slumdogs even the smell of a bone.

Just about everything is. I believed the question to be one of why gold was chosen more often than diamonds. Diamonds have a number of the properties that are good for a free market arrived at money, but not as many as gold.

There is more oil available today than when it started running out about

I would like to know how speculators are responsible for the US federal government meddling in the affairs of oil producing nations causing/adding instablity? Also how are they responsible for the various regulations that effectively restrict oil production in the USA?

Now they are often responsible for the financial and trading regulations that allow them to manipulate markets, but that's a different facet of the question.

Yeah...OPEC is cutting production because of a glut on the market...

Gas? If I had any more Gas, I would be richer than that Opec! ~ Smokey and the Bandit II. cuhulin