[legion]

As usual, I'm out ahead of the news...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_bi_ge/energy_prices

Caruso said that supply and demand cannot account for all of the recent price surge.

"Something is clearly going on," he told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
...
"I am fairly well convinced that in the short term what we have is an unbelievable orgy of speculation," Dorgan said.

"There's clearly been a surge in moneys coming in to commodities markets, including energy, which has had some upward effect on the price above the trendline," Caruso responded. He said it was difficult to say whether speculation contributed $5 or $10 to the most recent surge, but that his agency's estimate of where prices should be, based on supply and demand, was about $90 a barrel.
...
Energy analysts also have cited the shift of money from the stock market to the commodity markets, including energy, as well as the declining value of the dollar and political turmoil in the Middle East, Nigeria and Venezuela, and a buildup of military forces on the Venezuela-Colombia border in recent days.