Who are those oil speculators, anyway? Maybe you

All those speculators getting the blame for driving up the price of oil these days -- just who are they? For part of the answer, look in the mirror.

[really really disgusted]

Overpaid CEO's, now pension fund managers, all those greedy business school types in it for the rape and profit, then run and the h-e-l-l with the carnage they leave behind. Heck with hanging all the lawyers, burn down the business schools turning out these greedy gordon gekkos before they destroy us all.

[Royer]

Ah yes, speculators, the favorite new boogeymen of the ignorant masses who have no idea how futures markets work and the politicians who cynically manipulate their ignorance. You'd think the runup in oil prices hasn't been a long-term trend since oil was $12 a barrel in 1998. Nope -- it MUST be the speculators who are bidding up the prices.

Well, guess what: the speculators will stop bidding up the price of oil when they stop being proven correct. Blaming speculators for the price of oil is like blaming thermostats for the temperature.

[Rocky]

I have been investing part of my money in large oil stocks for several years now. They have been among my best performers. But I have stayed away from commodity futures contracts. As a former stock broker (many years ago) who was also licensed as a commodities brokers, I know better than to mess with commodities. I leave that to the experts at the oil companies, who so far, have done pretty well in controlling their companies' risks, certainly better than financial service companies, among my biggest losers. Instead of complaining about speculators, maybe the politicians should be thankful that the gas stations still have gas to sell. And while they are at it, maybe they should stop taking money from "speculators" like George Soros. If central casting in Hollywood were looking for a speculator, he would be it.