Many people who looked at the Occupy movement were turned off by exactly what oldgold @27 said. Also, a lot of people were hoping for a movement to join that had the potential for what BeachPopulist @9 said. The Occupy movement so far has been a disappointment.

That is probably the best scenario, unless enough people wake up and vote 3rd party in sufficient numbers to elect Jill Stein (who has the best chance of any 3rd party), or another 3rd party candidate. But that is highly unlikely.

“But eventually every forward position has to be settled out, unless the buyer plans to take delivery, which is not done by speculators.”

Every forward position does not have to be settled out in the options market. And the futures options prices do raise the price of the commodity itself. Speculators buy and sell options contracts on futures and that is one of the ways the price gets run up. This applies to all commodities that have options (derivatives) on their futures. Up until about ten or so years ago (I don’t know exactly when) there weren’t options on the oil futures market.
It takes more explanation than I can do here and there are also things like daily position and price limits (I don’t think there is a daily price limit on oil) that affect how much the price can move in one day. These limits have also been raised, which adds to the rise in price. The price of our food commodities has been affected the same way.

Sometimes speculators do take delivery of product. That is why we had tankers full of oil sitting offshore a year or two ago, until the price went up. Buy low sell high.

Also, oil is traded in US dollars, and the weak dollar policy (low interest rates) of the Federal Reserve also contributes to the high price of oil.

I hope this too brief explanation helps clarify at least some things.

Something is better than nothing, but don’t celebrate too much. Companies like Coca Cola, and probably most of corporate America, will say whatever the public wants to hear. Then, secretly fund ALEC and anyone else that suits their agenda.

I don’t need “clarification”. The inequities Occupy points out are clear enough. It’s how to fix them that needs to be addressed, in a meaningful and reasonable way, that will garner enough support from more than just progressive liberals, to actually effect changes. There are 3rd parties and other movements out there that are close to Occupy goals but with proposals and platforms to fix some of the inequities. The Occupy movement has generated public awareness but I think it might lose it’s momentum if it doesn’t start to show a way forward. If they’re not going to do that they probably should align with a 3rd party or movement that already has some support. It’s going to take a lot of numbers to overpower the Dems and Repubs, but that’s what it will take to make real changes. Protesting with no solutions isn’t going to get it done.

When you refuse to define yourself others will always be more than happy to do it for you. Occupy has been too nondescript for it’s own good.

Support is probably going to drop further if Occupy doesn’t come out with something more than what they have so far. Everyone agrees there are inequities. Support will go to those who do more than just point that out. Two months of protest of inequities is fine, but now it is time for proposed solutions.

I’m starting to become concerned about the non-messsage of the Occupy movement getting redefined by someone else. Namely, the main stream media. In case you haven’t noticed, some of the msm have painted the movement as something that it is not, and by whom it is not. The longer this movement goes without some sort of definition, the more misinformation will be labeled to it. Everyone here is saying this is to ‘wake up America”. I agree, but remember the majority of Americans get their information from main stream news bites, not threads like this one.

I think you are right OldFatGuy. Sad but true.