Want Gas Prices Curbed? Get Dodd-Frank Implemented

Agencies are working diligently to get rulemakings finished to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act. And that is what will lead to curbing gas prices, explains Reuters, as it will but the breaks on speculators.

Petrochemical companies, banks, Wall Street and hedge fund speculators, though, don’t want to see real policing of this financial reform law to go into effect. They make billions with the status quo — at your expense.

In a classic red-herring tactic, House Republicans blame the federal budget deficit, EPA regulations and President Obama for high gas pump prices. Who’s really to blame? Let’s follow the numbers.

It’s not supply and demand driving prices. Demand rose 6.1 percent from March 2010-March 2011, while prices rose 22 percent.

“There is no question that speculation is playing a role in the rise of gas prices,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D. Mass.), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and key author of the Dodd-Frank law.

Commodity traders know the sky’s the limit because the key safeguards in Dodd-Frank that would rein in speculation are still mired in the rule-making process with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

The Republican budget calls for cutting the CFTC staff by two-thirds.

Washington has already seen the evidence for speculative abuses. A long-forgotten 2006 report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, showed that not only were speculators buying oil contracts for petroleum they would never use, their trades were run through opaque, unregulated exchanges.

Want to see gas prices stop rising? Get Dodd-Frank implemented, and fight deregulation.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.