High prices of commodities

The prices of oil, gold, rice and other commodities have shot through the roof. The large increases are due to:

a) Shortage
b) Financial speculation

The actual shortage may be small and temporary. But the financial speculators, e.g. hedge funds, have taken advantage of the situation to push up prices beyond the fundamentals. Even ordinary people have jumped into the bandwagon.

These extreme price movements are a function of the free market. It is bad for the global economy and is hurting many poor people. It a weakness of the market mechanism.

I hope that there will be some measures to prevent the excessive speculation.