The free market strikes again (and again, and again)

Could it be that rising oil prices are doing what environmentalists have been trying to do for ages: putting one airline a week out of business in the US? This bash on head for the US aviation industry is free market economics at its best: unregulated and unaccountable. The "invisible hand", guiding capitalism whilst righting the wrongs of social justice and environmental destruction. Or so they would us believe.

What's causing this jump in oil prices which is decimating the industry? According to an oil trader I was chatting to recently, the reason for the price hike was speculation. Pure speculation, and lots of it. But it's hardly surprising. This particular trader works for himself buying and selling oil. By the time he buys his oil he has sold it. Almost instantly. He buys oil and sells it in the same second. You could say he doesn’t have trouble shifting his goods, but he’s not shifting anything at all. It's all imaginary (his words not mine).

Given that this oil hungry world can’t leave a barrel on the shelf for more than a second, it's no wonder that the big-bellied beasts of the sky are beginning to go hungry. But don't be too quick to celebrate. The crazy speculation of maddened arch-capitalists is also driven up food prices, causing food riots across the global south. Will the minority of 'cheap' flight addicted Westerners start rioting when there's no more flights from Heathrow to Manchester? It's hardly Haymarket, is it?