So much political focus has been placed on corrupt foreign governments that can impact the US economy by manipulating oil, and some woudl say that this political focus has CAUSED WARS. WHo is REALLY the greater threat? Corrupt foreign governments or GREEDY SPECULATORS who are based right here in the USA?

They are both responsible. The corrupt foreign governments and oil companies raise the price. This leads to speculators speculating about how high the price will get, thus giving the oil companies ''justification'' when they raise the price.

After thinking about it while filling up for gas, l think the speculum is man is greatest threat.

Given those two choices, I'd take the corrupt foreign governments as being the bigger threat.

Speculators have the positive benefit of taking risk & price fluctuation out of the market. If they think prices r going up, they buy cheap oil & re-sell it when the prices r high. This adds to the supply of oil, which forces the price down.

If they think prices r going down, they sell today with the idea of buying in the future. Selling forces the price down; buying in the future when it is lower reduces supply & forces the price back up.

The overall effect is that speculators give inertia to prices, making it harder for them to climb & fall.

The whims of corrupt foreign governments, on the other hand, r harder to predict. So again, given the choice between the two, l will stick with the speculators & toss out the foreign governments.

The commodities market is a system that enables goods to get to you. It is complex for the uneducated to understand, so governments love to demonize everybody engaged in the process, hoping that they can nationalize & take over the process.

Unfortunately, since socialist education systems do not teach this to people, they can be easily mislead.

The end result would be best described as the supermarket shelves of the Soviet Union, where everything became expensive & rare.

Start hoarding toilet paper: that is my advice to you.