Speculators and Exceptions to the Law of Demand

To what extent are speculators responsible for the increasing volatility of commodity prices? Expectations of price movements for globally traded commodities can have a huge impact on demand in the markets and the bets that speculators make on the forward prices of commodities such as oil can lead to rapid price hikes. We saw this with food and oil in 2008 - with enormous consequences for consumers and producers in developed and developing countries - and perhaps we are seeing this again as 2009 draws to a close. The world price of crude oil is already heading north again towardsa $90 a barrel.

This BBC world service audio report is a good resource on the impact of speculation and its possible links to exceptions to the law of demand where a rise in actual or expected prices can bring about an expansion of market demand.

“The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington has studied price movements and concluded that they couldn’t all be explained by the fundamentals. And, perhaps most damning of all, a big-time speculator is now identifying speculation as one of the causes in the movement of the price of oil.”

More here