On June 10th, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) called a public meeting of its Energy Markets Advisory Committee to address continually exponentiating oil prices.

Representatives from major investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley fielded questions regarding their banks’ roles in the oil futures market for the first time under the public eye. Many groups have raised suspicion as to whether the banks are using investors’ funds to bid up oil prices, while at the same time issuing predictions that prices will rise.

Donald Casturo, managing director of Goldman Sachs, stated: “There is a clear separation between our research and trading departments…The firm is acting within the terms of the law.”

Still, organizations like Industrial Energy Consumers of America remain skeptical of the truth in this statement. The CFTC announced the launch of an investigation to be conducted by a special panel consisting of Federal Reserve, SEC,

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Congress is up in arms. And the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is on the warpath. Their target: Speculators in the natural resources market. The CFTC said this week that it's investigating a dramatic rise in cotton prices from earlier this year. It also plans to tighten some rules that apply to investors in the broader agricultural futures markets. Those steps come just a few days after the regulatory body said it would investigate oil trading activity to see if prices are being manipulated. Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee just held a hearing on commodities speculation. At the gathering, legendary hedge fund manager George Soros said: "There is a strong prima facie case against institutional investors pursuing a commodity index-buying strategy ... It is intellectually dishonest, potentially destabilizing and ...