On Oil Hearings - To a friend

Yeah, Congressional hearings have long been a stage for the legislators to do their grandstanding thing. Trouble is, this time they happened against folks who were smarter/ didn't care/ better prepped and able to get their own licks in. Unlike the first two dozen times. Also showed whatta floater M. Waters D-CA is.
As for the real issue, it's money movement. The stock & bond markets are relatively stable, saving accounts, etc.are way too low and the housing bubble went poof (REIT and other bundling schemes) so the investors, pension funds, insurance, unions, went to commodities. Metals, meat (remember pork bellies for bacon?) and oil all have active commodities markets. (Also see commodities market index.) The trading is in futures; that is goods to be delivered at some future date. The investors trade paper contracts while others handle the actual goods. Besides crude oil, there are markets in gasoline, diesel, av gas and the other refined products, too. All made to fleece the naive but do provide stability for the knowlegible. (e.g. Jet Blue has its fuel on contracts at $2.60 bought back when. American and United are paying current spot c. $10. They didn't have the reserve bucks back then so are hurting still.) Worldwide trading is done in reserve currencies. There's only one left; US$. Reason: volatility; the country no longer has control over its currency.
Then comes another complication: currency traders (!). These guys move megahowsomevers back and forth to gain small fractions. Make enough small fractions and it becomes real money. Again, no actual money changes hands only contracts. They do the actual reduction of dollar vs. Euro, Yen or whatever.
The real problem is that the run up on oil futures this time is looking like a bubble. Bubbles always go poof as demand falls below what was anticipated; that seems to be happening. Spot gold took a jump last week from c. $860 to c. $940. (google spot gold and look at the Kitco graphs.) Is on its way down a bit. Gold is the commodity for the nervous; first to rise but also first to fall as its appreciation (kinda like interest) is low. On the other hand, a crash in any of several US areas will crash the rest of the world, too.
The above makes it seem that I understand these markets. My knowledge is about the level of a high school freshman about science; they exist. Besides, my purse is way too small.
Hope this helps but suspect it is just more mud. Looks we are living in "interesting times". BTW gas in Europe also jumped c. 50%.
Spending more tax dollars than are taken in is a mixed blessing. Useful in very poor economic times but wayyy too tempting to politicians all the time. Like most medicines, the wrong prescription can kill the patient. Ray