This topic keeps coming up so I'll summarize some points I've alrady made [1].

1. The size of this market manipulation can be measured by the gap between spot or physical oil prices (which generally aren't public) and the future or paper price [2]. Historically these have tracked each other so close it was a non-issue. Now it's a huge issue;

2. Part of the gap can be attributed to the financial markets being in denial [3] and the market itself being in extreme backwardation. That simply means the spot price is significantly higher than the future price. It indiciates some sort of market dysfunction (or delusion). We saw this in the silver market last year.

All credit for this wanton insider trading goes back to the Supreme Court inventing presidential immunity out of thin air [4][5] and a Congress that has completely abdicated any kind of constitutional responsibility.

You might think there might be some kind of criminal prosecution or at least investigation by government agencies of the players involved. Well, sycophants and crackpots have put in charge of those agencies (eg Michael Selig of the CFTC [6]).

And if that fails, just buy a pardon [7].

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47955623

[2]: https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-interpret-wartime-oil-pric...

[3]: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Reality-Finall...

[4]: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/supreme-co...

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States

[6]: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/12/michael-selig-predi...

[7]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/04/donald-trumps-...