More on the commodities price bubble

I wasn't planning to post again on crude oil prices, but I came across this post explaining clearly how futures traders can drive--and probably are driving--up commodity prices.  The post quotes liberally from Congressional testimony of a hedge fund manager who is not currently trading in commodities.  There are some eye-popping charts and real insights in 19 pages of testimony. 

Update on Monday, June 9, 2008 at 10:51AM by Skeptic

The Oil Drum is a blog dedicated to all things petroleum and has some good information and analysis, including this discussion around George Soros' view that markets are characterized by "reflexivity," not equilibrium.  Apparently, the dominant view at The Oil Drum is "peak oil" is here--i.e., we're running out.  But the linked post points out that running out and speculative bubbles are not mutually exclusive explanations for what we see. 

Update on Sunday, September 7, 2008 at 08:44PM by Skeptic

Here George Soros assesses the situation in his own words and suggests appropriate and inappropriate responses to the speculative bubble in crude oil prices.