EconMatters | Jul 19, 2013 03:00PM ET
It was another crazy day of speculation in the gasoline and oil markets, typical of the QE fueled shenanigans that happen every day for the last month in equities and oil. Speculators ran WTI up to $109 a barrel, and the RBOB contract up as high as $3.16 a gallon on Friday. So expect prices at the pump to continue to rise due to wild, rampant speculation in the futures market.
The Middle Class & Rising Gas Prices
Unfortunately, the wealthy futures traders can afford these higher prices, but the middle class portion of the population really gets hurt by a 50 cent per gallon price increase at the pump. Think in terms of college students working to juggle rising tuition costs, with already tight budgets, and now they have to use credit cards to pay for their increasing gas bills each week because their low paying job doesn`t completely account for $4 a gallon gas fill-ups each week.
It was another crazy day of speculation in the gasoline and oil markets, typical of the QE fueled shenanigans that happen every day for the last month in equities and oil. Speculators ran WTI up to $109 a barrel, and the RBOB contract up as high as $3.16 a gallon on Friday. So expect prices at the pump to continue to rise due to wild, rampant speculation in the futures market.
The Middle Class & Rising Gas Prices
Unfortunately, the wealthy futures traders can afford these higher prices, but the middle class portion of the population really gets hurt by a 50 cent per gallon price increase at the pump. Think in terms of college students working to juggle rising tuition costs, with already tight budgets, and now they have to use credit cards to pay for their increasing gas bills each week because their low paying job doesn`t completely account for $4 a gallon gas fill-ups each week.
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