Senate panel hearing testimony about bubbilicious commodity prices

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a ranking member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, discusses speculation in the commodities market. A vote on the Consumer-First Energy Act, which addresses the speculative bubble among energy traders, is expected before Memorial Day.

Index-speculators, large and institutional investors, are having a very significant effect on the dramatic increase in commodity prices that is really creating a lot of stress among average families and terrible suffering among people who are poor both here in America and throughout the world. So the testimony was really quite riveting.

....the most impressive testimony we heard today said that financial speculators are the largest single factor in the increase in commodity prices and that we and the government have to do something about that. We may take action which we will now consider to block some of the ways in which speculation in commodities is going on.

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video: The Senate, Commodities & Speculation
CNBC, Last Update: Tues. May 20 2008 | 1:15 PM
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=748312143

read also: Consumers first - oil futures later
http://manonthestreet64.blogspot.com/2008/05/consumers-first-oil-futures-later.html

further reading: Democrats: Close speculation loophole
Senate Democrats look to end U.S. electronic oil trading in foreign exchanges to reduce the speculative inflation of oil prices.
By David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer, Last Updated: May 8, 2008: 12:00 PM EDT
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/08/news/economy/senate_gas_prices/index.htm