Say Anything Blog

Senator Kent Conrad (D - VIP Loans) put out a press release today detailing his opposition to those nasty oil speculators and hedge fund managers everyone is blaming for high oil prices and laying out how he’d show those speculators who’s boss.

Here’s a thought, though: If Senator Conrad doesn’t like oil speculation what does he feel about speculation in, say, wheat markets?

A common practice among farmers here in Conrad’s home state (if you can call a place he only visits to campaign his “home") is to stockpile harvested crops rather than selling them immediately.  Farmers who do this are hedging against future high prices for their crops.  They hope that by denying the market their share of the crop supply they and their fellow farmers will reap higher profits when prices are driven back up by demand.

Now, personally, I don’t have any problem with this.  It makes good business sense.  But Conrad wants to use the force of government to stop the oil industry from this sort of speculation, so we can safely assume that he also wants to use the force of government to stop farmers from leveraging the highest possible price for their crops right?

After all, if driving up the price of oil is bad certainly driving up the price of food is bad too right?