As we have seen in the housing market - prices go up and soon they come down. Most of the rapid price rise in the housing market was not caused by average people buying a home but by housing speculators buying up homes to flip them. You have seen the countless programs on TV such as Flip this House or the infomercials on how to make it big in the real estate market. Well the prices went up too fast and too much, hence the bottom fell out. Unfortunately many people that were just looking to buy a home they could live in got caught up in that mess.
Now that same type of market seems to be happening with oil - the oil speculators are driving the price of crude oil of out sight. I wonder if it happens to be the same people that drove the price of real estate out of sight? They had to go and invest their money somewhere else since the real estate market is now a dud. I wonder if pork bellies, corn a soybeans are next? Yes, our own food can be at the mercy of people buying and selling futures on the commodities market. You would think there would ought to be a law. I think there was a law about the general public not being allowed to trade in the commodities market about 40 years ago but that all changed and now we are paying the price for it.
I wonder how many of you are old enough to remember when it was illegal for people living in the USA to buy and sell gold (as in gold bars). That was limited strictly for the US Mint and for the gold reserves. Times have changed.
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