Timing not right for OPEC output hike -Kuwait

But our friends from the European Union insist on an overall reshaping of the global financial sector to prevent the repetition of the 2008 "speculative" bubble.

In normal times, the effect of the speculator on oil prices is to level them off. In normal times of plenty, when oil prices are low, the speculator by buying up and storing oil causes them to rise. In normal times of lack of oil, when oil prices are high, the speculator sells and causes prices to fall. The effect on him is to earn profits.

This is not villainous; on the contrary, the speculator performs a valuable service. Yet instead of honouring the speculator, the EU is reviling him, thereby forgetting that prohibiting oil speculation has the same effect on society as preventing squirrels from storing up nuts for winter – it leads to starvation.