High Gas Prices: It's All Phil Gramm's Fault

The media in the last week has featured several revealing articles detailing former Texas (where else?) Sen. Phil Gramm's involvement with a large Swiss bank that is caught not only in the mortgage crisis but in illegal financial activity. He has been a lobbyist with USB — or is it UBS? — until very recently and continues to be a vice president.
Gramm is John McCain's "economic advisor."
What has not yet grabbed the media's attention is Gramm's leadership role in midnight amendment to 2000 legislation — the Enron loophole — that eliminated government oversight — that bad, bad government regulation — of futures markets.
Sen. Maria Cantwell chaired the Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week on the whole thing, which was shown on C-Span. You can watch and listen to the whole two hours here.
But if you don't want to, here's the bottom line:
You're paying about $1-$2 a gallon too much because of unregulated market manipulation and speculation.
Yeah, supply/demand is in there, and the falling dollar. So is hoarding. So is producer (e.g. the Saudi's) reluctance.
And yeah, we need to develop alternative energy.
But, $1-$2 a gallon is what this travesty of deregulation under the Republicans is costing you.
Oh, yeah, George Soros was there to testify. He's been all over the Hill lately. That must be killing the R's, to have to listen to their Great Satan.
But the hero of the day was Michael Greenberger, a law professor and former director of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission under Clinton.
He's enraged. He said the FTC needs to be told to buck up and do something now and federal law allows it under the Administrative Procedures Act. Futhermore, this deregulation not only allows the oil speculation, but is behind the food and mortgage derivatives speculation.
There. It's all the fault of Phil Gramm, busy whispering "more, more deregulation" in McCain's ear.