Argument for futures speculation by Walter Williams

[Peter1469]

Congressional attacks on speculation do not alter the oil market's fundamental demand and supply conditions. What would lower the long-term price of oil is for Congress to permit exploration for the estimated billions upon billions of barrels of oil domestically available, not to mention the estimated trillion-plus barrels of shale oil in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. Some politicians pooh-pooh calls for drilling, saying it would take five or 10 years to recover the oil. I guarantee you we would begin to see a reduction in today's prices even if it took five to 10 years for us to get the first barrel. Put yourself in the place of an OPEC member knowing there would be a greater supply of U.S. oil five or 10 years, hence maybe driving oil prices lower to say $40 a barrel. What will you want to do now while oil is $130 a barrel? You would want to sell as much oil now and OPEC's collective efforts to do so would put downward pressures on current oil prices. Right now the U.S. Congress is OPEC's staunchest ally.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69075

The analogy to the corn market is applicable to oil. 

[bored]

Great point. I've always enjoyed reading Walter Williams.

Actually, my grandparents own about 30 acres or something like that in northern PA. An oil company came to them to make a deal to drill for oil on their property. It is unknown if they will find it, but the possibility of it brought the oil company there. They agreed and will be paid a large sum at the start. Then they will be paid an amount for all equipment that will be on their property and a small percentage of any oil drilled from the land.

[Peter1469]

That is pretty cool- I wish I had some land that an oil company wanted to drill on.   

[bored]

  Yeah, same here!

[Beatnik]

That is pretty cool- I wish I had some land that an oil company wanted to drill on.   

I wish I had a steady job, but shit, you can't always get what you want.