This is a fair and fairly detailed story that moves from a straightforward report on Friday's jump in the crude oil price to analysis of why and what the future holds. There are a few too many generalized sources for my taste but overall it's an excellent piece of journalism.

Washington has been whistling past the graveyard lately on the price of oil, trying to blame "speculators" for these enormous price jumps. Coverage like this shows the causes are much wider and deeper. Speculators speculate on conditions created either by events or policies, they do not create those events and policies. Peak oil and regional instability in oil producing regions are the core causes, and neither of those two factors are easily or quickly addressable. Neither are speculators, especially when handed a sure thing like current conditions.

This just repeats common drivel about oil, adding very little except the points about Israel and short traders. Evidence is need for claims about spare capacity, sour crude, Asian exports, and pressure for new drilling. Evidence is provided for other claims.