We just need to start cuffing and stuffing these arogant Wall Streeters and give them a room next to Bernie Madoff's. Barring that, we could also send them hunting with Cheney if we want some fast justice!

One way to solve the speculation on commodities is to raise the amount of deposit to control a contract. Presently its apx 10% down, raise it to 20% and see what happens. That's half as many contracts that can be controlled with the same amount of money down. Back in the early eighties they did it with silver and drove the price down from $50.

Drill baby, drill? No baby, NO! It's not for lack of enough oil that prices are sky high and climbing. Even if we did all the drilling the pro-oil Republicans claim they ever wanted, it won't change the fact that there isn't enough refinery capacity to process it into gasoline. It's mostly speculators bidding up the oil and gas prices. Demand is in fact actually down slightly from recent years due to less driving by most people. The unemployed aren't driving to jobs, 'Stay-cations' have become more popular due to gasoline price sticker shock, More efficient vehicles have replaced gas guzzling SUV's and large PU trucks as buyers wised up and thought about what they could afford to drive vs what was thought of as 'making a statement ' or what they thought of as 'cool' to be seen driving not long ago.  The last time gas was only a little more pricey than now was the second half of 2008, and oil was then at 130-140. per barrel. Now its floating between about 105.-110. per barrel and gas is already pretty near those dreaded 2008 record highs! I don't even want to think about what gasoline will cost if crude goes back to the 130-140 range or more! I don't think 6.00-7.00 (or slightly more heaven forbid!) for a gallon of regular is beyond my vivid imagination -if these selfish deep pocket speculators are allowed to keep profiteering this way with a commodity we all depend on to live. A product whos price strongly influences the health of the economy as a whole. The prices for oil/gas can help or hinder the economy as they always have. Higher prices on everything else are the end result of too high oil and gas prices. The fed can lower interest rates to zero if they like, but it won't make up for more than a token amount if oil/gas remains unrealistically high for prolonged periods. The speculators must not be allowed to keep the driving the economy right back to the poor house for personal gain before we have even fully recovered from the harsh realities of the Bush/Republican recession. Putting in place a set of strict rules against what these speculators is doing is a great place to start. Enforcing some new 'government regulations' to stop runaway prices by rampant speculation is the way to go. Republicans will of course hate it not only because they hate rules and regulations that legally keep them from stealing as much, but because if the middle class benefits from lower gas prices, the economy will improve. If the economy improves more than it already has since W left the bldg, then what half-baked song and dance con games can they try to sell us to get back in the WH in the next election?!