Obama could fix gas prices but he won't because his Wall Street pals wouldn't like it

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"There is plenty of oil and gas around....Wall Street traders are allowed to gamble on vital resources."

3/1/12, "Blame Wall Street for all your bad gas pains," NY Post, John Crudele

"But the truth is that Wall Street controls the price of gasoline. It has for a long time and, until someone does something about it, the financial community will continue to determine how much of your hard-earned money is burned in your car.

Wall Street has this control because it trades gasoline futures contracts, which are basically nothing more than a bet on where gas prices will be headed in the weeks and months ahead.

The gasoline futures contract that expired yesterday was pricing fuel about 18 cents to 20 cents lower than the new April contract that begins trading today.

And unless there’s some miracle — or government intervention — the price at the pump should quickly climb that extra 18 to 20 cents. (I would happily be wrong on this, but I did fill up this morning.)

There is plenty of oil and gas around. And more energy-efficient cars — not to mention the recession — have reduced demand worldwide.

If Washington ever gave the go-ahead on domestic energy projects, we’d be in even better shape.

The latest refrain in Washington is that nobody can do anything about rising gas prices.

• That’s crap!

Wall Street’s trading in futures contracts can be restricted or made more expensive. We are paying more

• because traders are allowed to gamble on vital resources."

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12/10/09, "Obama's Big Sellout," Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi

How Obama became the best friend Wall Street ever had and fooled most who voted for him.

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