Last week, Obama proposed new controls and regulations on oil speculators, declaring, “None of these will bring gas prices down overnight. But they will prevent market manipulation, and help protect consumers.” Obama is correct about the former, and he is grossly wrong about the latter.
Whenever anything bad happens—in this case, high gas prices—it is capitalism that gets the blame. Greedy speculators, we are told, are manipulating the market.
What Obama and his comrades want us to ignore are the many government interventions that are creating high gas prices. To name a few: Obama’s refusal to allow the Keystone pipeline to be built, Obama’s diversion of billions of dollars into “green energy,” and the continued refusal to allow drilling in ANWR. Obama wants us to pretend that these manipulations have nothing to do with gas prices.
Remember also that, while campaigning for his first term, Obama admitted that his policies would dramatically increase energy prices. Apparently, when government forces prices higher through coercive means, it is not manipulative. But when private individuals engage in voluntary transactions, it is manipulative.
Of course, this hypocrisy is not surprising. Having rejected anything resembling principles, most contemporary politicians are quite at home contradicting themselves. For example, we are told that monopolies are harmful to consumers when they are achieved by productive superiority; but they are beneficial to consumers when they are controlled by government.
The truth is, Obama is not opposed to manipulating the market. When the voluntary actions of millions of individuals do not create the results he would like, he is more than happy to manipulate the market.