So, minding my own business, I am interviewed for my thoughts on the Enron Loophole and Oil. I did some research on the publication and found that they are a group that says they are a “publication of the Communist Party, USA.” Hmmm. Good thing it is not the 50’s.

Below is the summary of what they are trying to achieve and an excerpt from the article.

You know… I wonder why the reporter never told me about his publication. Just goes to show you that a name is not always fully descriptive.

“Political Affairs is an online magazine of ideology, politics, and culture. Our mission is to go beyond simply giving an account of events to providing analysis and investigating what is new and changing in our world from a working-class point of view.

In the pages of PA we start from the most basic fact of life: the ongoing struggle between the working class and the capitalist class. This conflict happens in the workplace, in the government, the courts, on the streets, but also in the realm of ideas. We publish stories on struggling to defeat the ultra right in the Republican Party, strengthening the labor movement, winning the battle for racial justice, ending war and imperialism, winning women’s equality, fighting homophobia, and presenting working-class views of popular culture and mass media.

While we are partisan, Marxism is not the private property of any person or group. We print a wide variety of views in our quest for truth. Discussion and debate are the only ways to develop better and more useful ideas to defeat the far right, strengthen working people, and build democracy.”

From Political Affairs Magazine:

…Higher oil prices are not unrelated to supply and demand questions, said investment consultant Andrew Horowitz. “But the fact of the matter is that the frothier part, the reason why we have had such a parabolic move in oil prices, is because the so-called “Enron loophole” has continued to remain open,” he noted. “That is perhaps the most important factor.”

Authored by John McCain’s economic adviser, former Sen. Phil Gramm in 2000, the “Enron loophole” allows energy commodity trading to be done without any regulatory oversight. Incredibly, this loophole has remained open, even after the collapse of Enron due to rigging, insider deals, and fraud that cost investors, pensioners and employees of that company hundreds of millions of dollars. Gramm was forced out of an official capacity in the McCain campaign after characterizing people who don’t like high gas prices or the sagging economy as “whiners.”

Congress recently brought natural gas trading under the purview of federal regulatory agencies as part of the Farm Bill passed last May, but has so far not passed new oversight over petroleum commodities generally.

Speculation is driving the current spike in prices, Horowitz emphasized. “The commodities markets are today being run rampant by speculators who have, under the radar, but, more importantly, without regulatory oversight, been able to push oil prices dramatically higher.”