Best finance spot on the net and in the news. Great job!

If people actually analyze data you could CLEARLY see speculators drove the market for oil. Production and demand has not changed enough to be responsible for the increase or the fall. Creating a law forcing people trading oil to actually take delivery of oil would cut out alot of the fluctuation. They shouldn't be able to have the globe in a panic at a whim. When oil was high consumers panicked, now that its low OPEC is panicked. Let the producers and consumers figure out the price, not investors.

when goldman sacs annouces that oil is going to 145 a barrel and it automatically shoots up to 142 a barrel is TOTAL CRAP!!!! total manipulation who are these people, they have misled so many investors and hurt so many average joes , but they rich like them, just like they liked bernie. The govenment and all its agencies need a major overhaul and soon , people are getting real tired of being robbed!!

It is ironic that Henry Blodget with his tech bubble history would be on as the apologist for speculators in commodities. The fox guarding the hen house.

It is not just the price of oil that has fallen, all grades of paper have tanked along with steel and plastic. I work for a recycling company and we are finding it hard to move the products. With the lack of demand for goods, there is not a need for cardboard boxes to ship them in. All compaies will have to adjust their costs to make a profit in this new era. It will be an exciting ride. I also disagree with all the doom and gloom. The adjustment will be hard but we are not going to roll over and die. Stop the self pity and get to work.

Most people don't understand the concept of supply and demand. Prices would have gone to even greater extremes without speculators.

Barry Ritzhol is full of it. Look at the numbers for oil demand- demand is not decreasing- its just increasing slower than it used to be. The fact that demand from oil went say from a 5% increase to a 2% increase should not mean that the price of oil goes from $160 a barrel to $38 a barrel, given the additional fact output has been cut dramatically. This is clearly a case of manipulation by the same people who are responsible for most of our problems- namely Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, etc. Its along the same lines as the huge naked short positions that Jp Morgan has on gold. www.gata.org

I think to say that speculators had nothing or very little to do with is propaganda at the very least and outright lies at the worse. I was in the Middle East and on one of Bush's visits begging for lower oil prices, the King of Saudi Arabia and the President of the UAE offered to let Bush buy oil directly from the Bourse and cut the speculators out of the loop to "Stabilize Prices" and the price they were offering was about $60 a barrel. The Arabs say that the price is because of the speculators, so who would you believe? The Arabs who just want stable prices so they know where they will get the cash to buy another Ferrari or Wall Street who wants to downplay their role in the meltdown?

The price of oil is now bottom no more no less at the moment,remember the future is different..........It may go up but not $ 147 dollar.a barrel but $50 to 70 dollar range in 12 months time........no more no less.......The more the economy recovery the price of oil will go up too.

I blame the 24 hour financial news coverage. Without them shouting gloom and doom this would be a much softer downturn.

Over Taxed American hit on something that everyone seems to have overlooked (at least, I never read about it anywhere) - manipulation by investment banks. It was plain as day if you followed the news stories everyday this past summer. Some Goldman Sachs fund manager would advise his clients to invest in oil, releasing an "official" statement that it was Goldman's belief that oil would soar to $200/pbl, and the immediate effect of their making that statement was...to send oil shooting up. Not supply, not demand...a press release from an investment banker could mark an $8 uptick in the commodity price. Clearly there is something wrong with that.

Hahahaha! Stop the whining and get to work :) There are too many people making money from shuffling money around in this country. Half of them will be laid off by Spring! People that got caught in the trap, deserve what they received. ALL investment is at risk.

The crooks and ignorants talking heads are at it again. There is no demand destruction. For that matter there was no rise demand. The speculators puhed it up. The correct price for oil is $30-40. It should have been and should be where is is for a long time to come.

Don't forget the lumber industry. Home Depot is selling 7/16" OSB for under $6 a sheet. "What a bargain! Everyone should stock up". "Oh, no demand, for the last 2-1/2 years you say?" Thank you Wall Street & the Fed.

Speculators. They pushed prices to the point when industry and people have got simple choice: crash if prices go up more or create reserves. Creation of reserves pushed prices even more up. Wait until the reserves (tanks of oil, aviation kerosene, gas and diesel at proprietary gas stations, heating oil in personal tanks) are run off. Then the price will go to reasonable level as well. Check price of tickets to fly. They still fly on $130 oil.

Goldman Sac is in control. Politicians got plenty donation from them. They got all the contacts in Washington from Bush administration to Obama. Do you really think they are woking for you? or thmeselves. Just take a look who is in charge for AIG, Citi( all ex Goldman Sac and who si in charge of bail-out?) Do you still trust Obama? Republican and Democrats are the same in money matters. Politicains are the same.and they all know what was going on but just close their eyes and get them some benefits first. We want to change, all those in the Washington should be kick out and start- over again.

Is it me or speculators and investors the same. they all put money on the line in order to make more money. The reasons why the commodities markets have gone up in the past few years is the obvious fact that the 3rd world countries are industrializing. That means that they will be using up more commodoites. So, people in charge of making money invested in them. And how did they invest in them? Futures!! Think about it...if you think that people around the world is going us more and more say....copper....you goto the futures pits and buy copper contracts. So what do you think will happen to copper prices? obvioulsy go up. it really has nothing to do with the current demand or supply of copper....it has everything to do with the current demand and supply of copper contracts. if people are not willing to step up and sell these contracts at a level, then the prices of contracts go up and consequently the underlying commodity. So that is basically what happened. Everyone thought the growth of the 3rd world countries would never stop and bought up commodity contracts, while no one was willing to sell them. (why would you if you thought that prices would go up?) until....the big reality strikes....global recession...everyone flips their bias and starts selling commodiites. And now the opposite has occured. Big Money is now selling commodiites (futures contracts.) This is how things work in free markets. The supply and demand that people keep talking about shouldn't be for the underlying commodities, its about the futures contract.

...a wonderful time to read Henry David Thoreau.

Threre is no commodity bubble,commodity always follow the supply and demand...........In good time the demand is great so the price of commodity too goes up.... This time is just fair......

I believe in the reason commodity prices were placed in a markets and allowed to exist in the first place. Speculators even out prices so they do not get as low as they could go and do not become more expensive than they could get! Those speculators who manipulate the market the most usually get burned when natural forces cause an opposite reaction. I think many of the banks current problems are from attempted control of markets. Oil went up through two forces. momentum which means that which moves any one way continues to move until other forces cause the direction to change. Many traders contribute to that momentum. Especially those who believe in momentum trading. The second is the amount of excess supply in the market. If there was 10% excess supply then there would be little incentive to try to hold prices up. when the excess supply of any commodity becomes too tight then any minor force like reduction in demand will cause a rapid negative reaction. Speculation helped cause the price of energy to go up. But it also caused it to go down to where it is now. Over time the average price is usually close to the real value.