McClatchy: Speculators are behind high oil and gasoline prices

"It is excessive speculation, which is a fancy word for saying that gamblers wearing Wall Street suits have taken these markets over," said Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former federal regulator of financial markets.

Further... "Financial speculators such as investment banks and hedge funds account for at least 65 percent of purchases of contracts for future oil deliveries, more than twice their traditional share, while buyers who intend to actually take delivery of the oil and use it, such as airlines, make up only about one-third of demand. The speculators bid up contract prices, sending oil and gasoline prices higher and reaping them huge profits. The bidding is stoked by fear of possible violence in oil-producing countries, notably Iran."

Once all they've wrung the profits out of the oil futures market, they'll move into housing speculation; speculators buying foreclosures and renting them out. 

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