WILLIAMS: Scapegoating speculators

I just read the following letter from the heads of the major airlines (such as Glenn F. Tilton, Chairman, President and CEO of United Airlines) to their customers about the price of fuel. The letter says that the cost of fuel is caused in some part by oil contract speculators. Here is the exact text: "Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs." So are you saying that the presidents of the US airlines are lying to the public?

No Jenna, they are not lying, they are only pursuing their self-interest. They do not care about you or me. Their letter is pathetic. They say that "Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again" and thus the price rises. That is freshly baked BS. If speculators have that power, WHY then don't they bid up the price to $500 per barrel in one sitting? Being CEOs of major companies [and thus, presumably, fairly smart people], is this what they can come up with as arguments? Very poor.