June 5 U.S. Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. issued a call on May 27, for the oil-producing nations to set a target price of $25-$26 a barrel for petroleum, in order to bankrupt the speculators who have driven the price of oil into the stratosphere. LaRouche emphasized that these outrageous and harmful price levels have nothing to do with supply and demand, but are purely the product of speculation by hedge funds, financial institutions and the London-based oil-marketing cartel, to pump up oil prices as a means of keeping the bankrupt global financial system afloat until after the U.S. Presidential elections.

There is no oil shortage, period. Figures from the International Energy Agency show that world oil supplies exceed consumption by some 1-2 million barrels a day. Furthermore, comparisons between the production and the price of oil show that oil prices gyrate wildly while production remains stable and predictable. The volatility in the oil price is not due to physical-economic factors, despite certain convenient bottlenecks built into the refining process by the oil cartel.

The rigging of the oil price is largely done through futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the London International Petroleum Exchange, both of which were founded by, and are run by, the international banking community. The average barrel of oil traded on these exchanges is bought and sold some 500 times between the time it is produced and its delivery to its end-user. This insertion of financial middlemen between the producers and consumers of oil in the oil business is the model for what was done to the electricity marketswhat Enron and its fellow pirates did to California, they learned from the bankers who set up the oil market.

As President, Lyndon LaRouche will put a stop to this speculative looting, and restore the economy and financial markets to soundness and stability, putting the General Welfare of the population ahead of the greed of these financial parasites. He will prioritize re-regulation, and negotiate nation-to-nation contracts on a long-term basis.

More information on LaRouche's analysis of the crisis can be found in Executive Intelligence Review, Vol. 31, No. 23, June 11, 2023.

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