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Gasoline prices have been falling. Supplies have been and are expected to be relatively stable. And the Obama administration taps the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves, designed to offset serious supply disruptions. That 30 million barrels — and 30 million more from the reserves of more than two dozen member countries of the International Energy Agency — will be dribbled into the supply chain over the next month. The net positive economic effect? Pretty negligible. But the net negative effect of what really is a political stunt designed to slap what looks like a rich veneer onto a particle board economic record — could be lasting. The New York Times reports that the move was intended, in part, to send a message to market traders “that governments would react when they believed there was excessive speculation in oil markets.” That would be those evil speculators whose work, in reality, promotes price stability. As Fox Business News host John Stossel reminded in a column last month, “When (speculators) foresee a future oil shortage — that is, when prices are lower than anticipated in the future — speculators buy lots of it, store it and then sell it when the shortage hits. They know they can charge more when there’s relatively little oil on the market. But their selling during the shortage brings prices down from what they would have been had speculators not acted.” And this Mr. Obama wants to stop?
