20 Apr 2011 Are Speculators Gouging Us At The Pump?

No, conclude Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute, writing on Forbes.com:

If this is going on we would expect to see some sort of inventory buildup. While crude inventories in the U.S. are increasing, they always increase at this time of year, and this year’s increase is well within the normal range. More important, gasoline inventories are decreasing and decreasing much more rapidly than normal.

They also say:

There is no need to repair to conspiracy to answer the question about why gasoline prices are going up. The loss of Libyan crude — about 2% of global supply — has reduced the amount of oil available in the market and gasoline prices track global crude oil prices.

There’s a great deal more. Read it all here.