These steps could lower oil prices, but nobody'll take them

Speculators will be here or overseas. Personally I like them on this side of the pond as much as possible. Some dem proposals to limit futures trading will gut a very profitable and regulated industry and send it overseas, for puny political gain. Typical.

Releasing the reserve would do something, but not much. 5-10 cents on four bucks isn't worth it imo.

The dollar will come back a lot faster without trying to jump start it.....remember interest rates are part of inflation too.

Oil is high primarily because it is the best way to supply motive energy. This too will pass, because we will adapt, and the market will adjust as well. Want to get serious, give poor people money to buy fuel just as they get food stamps.

I agree with this on two counts. High prices change behavior in two ways: On the supply side, oil companies are going to start investing in better ways to reclaim more oil from exisiting fields and new techniques to find new reserves. On the demand side, it encourages conservation and high density developement. Of course, it is also a huge hammer to the poor who see prices rising for not only gas, but everything that has a transportation component in the price. Taxing gas but giving it back to the poor in the form of a fuel allowance would be one way to balance that.

"Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher. "

I would agree with this and acknowledge that neither candidate would understand how this works.

"A second partial solution would be to boost the supply of oil available on the market by releasing as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil now held in the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That step is being pushed by, among others, the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by several former Clinton administration officials. "

Would not agree as this is only a short term plug that would have a minimal impact.

"The best way to bolster a currency is to boost interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to do that with America teetering on the brink of recession. The central bank in Europe, where growth is more robust, is poised to raise rates, however. That could weaken the dollar further, and drive oil prices even higher."

Timing is all wrong but would generally agree.