Эссе"Should or shouldn't we sell gas and oil"

Most people would probably agree that speculation in the oil and gas markets is hurting American consumers. Consider the case of Aubrey McClendon. Mr. McClendon is the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, where he sells natural gas for a living. Natural gas prices have now been pushed down — by speculators — to below $2 per million BTU. This is a drop of more than 80% from 2008 prices. With these depressed prices, Mr. McClendon will have a hard time ever matching his $112 million of earnings in 2008. Mr. McClendon’s livelihood has been hurt by speculators. Of course Aubrey McClendon is not your average person, and he isn’t likely to garner much sympathy over the decline in natural gas prices — especially since it has benefited consumers. But I use that example to illustrate the point that speculation is not a one-way street where the average consumer always loses. One of the frequently cited causes of high oil prices is from speculation. In fact, I agree that speculation is helping drive up oil prices. However, there are underlying fundamentals at work as well; otherwise the same speculators who are helping drive up oil prices would be doing the same with natural gas prices. Yet those underlying fundamentals are often overlooked in the rush to blame the speculators for spiking oil prices. Speculators Play the Game Both Ways Speculation can drive prices in either direction. If there is a widely held belief that oil prices will be higher, the price of oil will be bid up. It’s the same reason that the share price of Apple rises: Investors speculate that the company will do well in the future and they drive up the price in anticipation of future value. In the case of oil, the most recent speculation is that trouble in Iran could remove a significant quantity of oil from the market, driving prices much higher.