The Deal of the Century

I've long opposed this "appearing" and "disappearing" price the media feeds us.  Concepts like markets and prices are bewildering for most people out there...

But, I have my father to thank (and my 9th grade economics teacher, Dr. Lee) for teaching me about markets.  My father, being the rancher that he was, woke up every morning to the Livestock Report on the radio and often explained many of the details of contracts, futures, pricing, and of course, cheating.

So I've been loudly grumbling at the radio when I hear that oil keeps rising "and we're not sure why."  Well, Time recently  a decent article and makes some obvious connections.

Why is oil rising?  Simple greed.  Duh?

You don't need to understand Monte Carlo futures predictions to know that when greedy people leverage huge chunks of cash against a market - we consumers are going to pay out the nose.  And we are.