Has anyone seen Ted Koppel's series on China? they are adding 9 million cars a year right now. On top of that construction is booming and so is their manufacturing. Also the gov't subsidises gasoline so it costs about $2.50 /gal at the pump.they have put 30 million cars on the road in the last 5 years , not to mention building massive highway systems.The gov't has decided that they want to be number 1 in car production and ownership within the next 10 to 15 years.They will, basically , pay any price for oil. What all this means is that the speculators are virtually guaranteed to make a profit on their futures contracts.Just like in california when electricity prices went through the roof , the traders can increase the game with no risk and make billions because "that's the way the market works".we all better get used to a lower standard of living, because oil prices are not coming down, and will probably be over 200 a barrel by next year.

It's the perfect storm, and we have all done it to ourselves by driving the chinese economy by buying all our crap from there.Now it's too late to stop it.The chinese economy now has 300 million middle class and growing.They have become self sustaining and don't need the rest of the world to buy their stuff to prosper, they can buy their own stuff.

we are so screwed!