This week-old story [1] flew under the radar, but apparently we now have proof that the recent oil price spike was caused in large part by mysterious parties attempting to corner the market:

A quiet data revision that has boosted by nearly 25 percent the number of oil futures contracts U.S. regulators think are held by speculators is raising eyebrows in the energy trading community...

..."There may have been multiple 'positions' which were reclassified ... but they all appear to have been held by just one trader, and this was a very special trader, with an enormous concentration of positions in crude oil amounting to perhaps 460 million barrels, and not much interest in anything else," noted John Kemp of RBS Sempra Commodities.

Next time you fill up your tank, remember to thank "former" McCain economic honcho Phil Gramm for deregulating the commodities market. Just don't whine about it.