Oil traders to blame for $140-plus crude

A hedge-fund manager told US congress last week that without traders' speculation in oil futures, the price of crude would drop to $65-70/barrel, according to this article in yesterday's London Sunday Times.

Congress is considering introducing measures to limit futures speculation, although the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) insists it's nothing to do with the traders and purely a supply/demand issue.

US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson is in London this week for more talk along these same lines.