Rising Gas Prices- What Media Will Not Tell You

A failed and foolish foreign policy towards Iran, along with looking the other way while allowing Wall Street speculators to gain control of such things as oil and gas, are the two primary reasons for suffering at the pump.

Special thanks to csmonitor.com

(JAMESTOWN, RI) - Another of the many failures of mainstream media is its unwillingness to explain to the American public the causes for rising gas prices. There is no current shortage of gas and oil, world demand is down, current US demand is lowest since 1977, and supplies are relatively high, so what gives?

One major reason for your suffering at the gas pump is uncontrolled speculation in gas and oil prices by investors, which at one time was regulated. Speculation in gas and oil is not new; it has been around for many decades and understandably so.

Airlines for example, consume large quantities of fuel, and it behooves them to take the initiative to insure predictable prices of fuel. In order to know what they will be paying in the future, they arrange purchase deals with fuel suppliers with both parties agreeing upon a purchase price several months from the present. They secure a price with a dealer for a set amount, as an example 6 months in the future, sign a contract, and then know what the price of their fuel will be at that time.

This is not new and in many cases is needed for certain business. Oil and gas are commodities, and at one time the buying and selling of commodities was regulated to prevent one or two companies from getting control of too much of an item such as fuel, then manipulate and control the price. Slowly both major parties began to look the other way and allow regulation of commodities such as oil and gas to fall by the wayside.

Speculators saw an opportunity to invest in commodities like oil and gas. These people do not purchase oil and gas, nor do they need it; they are simply investors buying bets on the future price of a commodity, and hoping to sell it at a profit. The danger is that a large speculator or two could purchase so much of a commodity future contract of oil or gas, they would have control of a large share of that product and be able to control the price. That is exactly where we are today.

Speculators have gained an inordinate share of the future contracts of gas and oil, and have the ability to control the price. Congressman Bernie Sanders, one of very few who have not sold themselves to the financial dealers, estimates speculators have driven gas prices up by 40%. Consequently the price of gas has been on a rapid rise even though there is no shortage. Commodities speculators are chasing all kinds of products with oil and gas being just one example.

Expect rapidly rising prices in foods, grains, and other such things as speculators get control of more commodity products. The solution is to regulate how much gas or oil or any commodity for that matter, can be controlled, but neither major political party is willing to put teeth into the regulation of commodities because we have Congress that has been purchased by the Wall Street.

The second major reason for crippling gas and oil prices is due to our foolish policy towards Iran. The right wing of the Israeli, through its agent in the US called AIPAC, has managed to convince our Congress that regime change is needed in Iran.

Seemingly some in the Israeli government want nothing less than war on Iran, or at least to have the US make war on Iran and do their dirty work, but others suggest regime change can be achieved by imposing brutal sanctions which could eventually lead to regime change in Iran. The pretense for all this is the false and specious argument that Iran is building a nuclear weapons program, of which the US Intelligence agencies, the IAEA, and many top ranking Israelis have insisted is not true.

There is no evidence at all that Iran is building a nuclear weapons program, yet the big lie is endlessly repeated by mainstream media. The economic sanctions are trying to destroy the Iranian economy by not allowing them to sell oil or gas to the rest of the world. Without an income they would collapse, so the US has bullied nations into not purchasing oil or gas from Iran which has resulted in an artificial shortage.

Iran, in a retaliatory move has stopped selling gas to Greece, Spain, and several other nations which has cause demand for gas and oil to rise.

It is the foolish policy of trying to bring to bring down the Iranian economy by forbidding Iran from selling its oil and gas, thus creating the artificial shortage and allowing oil companies to exploit the situation, that has been a major contributor to the rising price of gas at the pump.

A failed and foolish foreign policy towards Iran, along with looking the other way while allowing Wall Street speculators to gain control of such things as oil and gas, are the two primary reasons for suffering at the pump.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com