Congress has threatened to take action against speculative commodities traders, as food and energy prices break fresh records.

A desperate Democratic Senator, Claire McCaskill, warned during a Senate hearing on commodities speculators that “the American people are about to take out pitchforks” because of the cost of groceries and gasoline.

McCaskill then told an official from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission: “If you don’t do something, Congress will,” according to a report in the LA Times.

Of course, it doesn’t appear to have struck the outraged Senator to consider mere market forces such as supply and demand or, in the case of oil prices, increased demand from emerging markets and decreased supply because of bad weather or geopolitical events.

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It’s a good day to be a Spencer. Retail giant Marks & Spencer reported £1 billion profits for the first time since 1998. And, Michael Spencer should surge a few places up the Sunday Times Rich List as his inter-dealer broker ICAP reported massive profits this morning.

Inflation is usually followed by deflation – but not for the United States. What inflation means to central bankers, investors and the consumer. Dubya presents Middle Easterners with a lengthy ‘to-do list’…the downside of Hollywood…and more!

Everything happens at the margin, said a dead economist. Americans alone probably drive millions of marginal miles – to places they really don’t really need to go…when they don’t really have to be there. At over $3.50 – they’ll drive less.

The price of oil, now nearing $130 a barrel, is being driven up by subsidies on cheap petrol and diesel, according to a report by Reuters.

China, India and other nations that subsidize cheap petrol and diesel may be even less willing to raise prices than they were six months ago, aiding crude’s ascent toward $130 even as demand deteriorates elsewhere.

While Indonesia appears set to raise prices as soon as this week, the world’s fastest-growing oil users show little inclination to tackle their subsidy schemes, as fighting food-fueled inflation has become their top priority.

The Indian land mass is moving 2 inches per year towards Tibet and China. It has been adrift for some 50 million years. The Himalayas were created when the large mass of land that is India banged into Asia. The recent earthquake in China was a result of this continuing, constant pushing.

How long before Bakken has a real impact on the price of oil? The answer’s never, sorry. Here’s why…

The recent Goldman Sachs oil price projection that put oil at $200 a barrel looks a little less likely today, as the price of oil eased off its $126 a barrel record. Analysts say oil’s drop is due to a combination of profit taking and a strengthening of the dollar against the euro and the yen. This from Casey Research on oil’s recent highs:

There is this overwhelming reluctance to admit that we’re simply in a new paradigm for prices and short of a wholesale collapse of the global economy, prices just aren’t going to pull back to a $75 level for oil,” wrote Neal Ryan, of Ryan Oil & Gas Partners.

When Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti made his oil price prediction that the black goo would “super-spike” past $200 in six months to two years’ time, how aware was he of the affects this prediction would have on the price of oil?

Murti’s price prediction seems to have been one of the main drivers behind oil’s climb yesterday, with the AP news wire carrying the headline: “Oil prices rise to record near $123 a barrel on prediction of $200 oil, supply concerns.”

Solar stocks rose yesterday as crude oil prices hovered around $122 a barrel. According to Forbes, however, gains in solar stocks were more psychological than operational.

Even though oil accounts for 2% of electricity production in this country–a negligible amount–the high-flying solar sector rallied on the back of black-gold’s gains.