... $150–$200 per barrel of oil is increasingly likely in the next 2 years.This morning crude oil hit $126 a barrel. According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murti has said that $150–$200 per barrel of oil is increasingly likely in the next 2 years. Presidential candidate Senator Clinton has claimed that speculators are driving the market and that the FTC and DOJ should investigate such "manipulation," all within the same breath of championing America's free market.

Historically, speculators get blamed for commodity increases, and politicians seek to threaten them as speculators seek to protect themselves from economic problems created by politicians. But oil supply has been constricted lately as oil production in Nigeria fell to a decade low in April because of strikes and attacks on oil installations. And supply is threatened by the ever-present possibility of war with Iran. Weakness in the dollar also raises the cost of oil.

According to Yahoo, India has suspended futures trading in some food commodities in hopes to prevent further price inflation, but critics of such action say it will "in no way" help as related markets affect each other. If you squeeze one end of the sausage, the other end balloons.
[Bloomberg, KELO, Yahoo]