WENY has a short story on Randy Kuhl and Maurice Hinchey's [D-NY-22] positions on oil speculation. Kuhl supports the Republican bill that would do a study to determine whether there's been speculation. Hinchey supports a bill that would kick speculators out of the market.
The Albany Project reports that Senator George Winner, who holds Randy Kuhl's old seat in the New York State Senate, will have a serious challenger this cycle. Elmira Mayor John Tonello will apparently be Winner's challenger this Fall. Tonello is in his second term as mayor. Winner won the seat by whopping 19 points in 2004 and ran unopposed in 2006.
Comments
That the study would find that "We have met the speculators and they are us." Meaning most of us -- the obvious wealthy investors, the mutual fund owners and the pension fund subscribers.
There's no need for a study. It's widely agreed that lax regulation of derivative securities has been a problem in the mortgage market, and it's also pretty clear that something similar is going on in the commodity markets, too.