I don't recall them bashing the speculators when it was $147/bl and that was part of the outrage. In fact, CNBC et al were complicit in constructing the facade that China and India actually warranted a 3 fold increase in crude to $147/bl oil over 2 and ahalf years and $10/bl swings at the peak of the bubble.



Call me naive but is it possible to short a commodity contract? I was under the impression the sell-off in oil was due to all the layoffs in the myriad brokerage firms that implemented commodity trading desks in a frenzy the last two years in a mad rush to take advantage of the trend. Even Goldman is dumping staff in the commodity trading complex. All those positions where the leverage was 10X+ have to unwind when people start getting canned. It was just a bubble like every other asset class we've experienced the past 25 years. Perhaps one day we'll return to a semblence of normalcy and slow but steady growth rather than these Federal Reserve induced boom-bust cycles.