Several times Democrats have made headway against oil companies---with tremendous backlash (Bush v. Gore; Russia/Trump vs. Clinton/Harris)--so now it has been confirmed for me that oil is the lifeblood of corruption and control. We could easily become energy-independent (alternative sources--even nuclear) but instead we pay wind companies to cancel their projects, cancelled all of Clinton's energy initiatives, cancelled Biden's initiatives.

As Midnight Oil pointed out---nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground.

US oil production is sold here and abroad. Oil companies aren’t regulated to only selling to the US.
We can “Drill baby drill!” all we want to just supply US consumers in the false hope of keeping prices low, but the reality is that any overseas calamity would still affect the price.

I basically meant independence from fossil fuels....but even if we cut that cord, all this nonsense elsewhere would affect prices of other goods here.

You are trying to attribute logic to an irrational system.
The market acts irrationally and requires no shadowy background to explain overreaction on price.

and not market manipulators, certainly the invisible hand of the market was a joke.

The word I hear all of the time that makes me shudder is, "perception." When markets are based on perception they can certainly be manipulated.

Just because it is no longer rational, doesn't make it any easier to manipulate than when OPEC could affect prices by simply turning pumps up or down.
Plus, the market back then still reacted to world events.
I still think the marketeers are looking for their short term gains so they overreact to every event.

Time to break up Big Oil. When the same big corporations own the oil fields, oil transportation, refineries and retail stores, we are their victims.

This is just market manipulation. The oil speculators know Trump is full of shit, but they're just playing the game.

fucking around and changing his mind every few hours, and a negotiated settlement would mean stability.

Maddening.

It might have been a profitable play the first time or two but now Trump's just the chubby little boy who called "BULL!" way too often.

That's certainly worth the Trump clan making billions on this scheme, right?

Snapshot just after 9 am -

Which makes sense, given the rumours of cessation of hostilities and reopening of Hormuz.

If it happens, expect futures to plummet, and if it doesn’t, expect the ongoing roller coaster.

While there has definitely been an element of manipulation/insider trading in this war, much of it is attributable to the mercurial incompetence of one man.

Not yo-yoing every hour with every latest bulletin.

But yes, the general trend is upward.

…minutes before TSF’s announcement?

Was this before or after the US firer upon an Iran tanker ?