A Bit Bewildered

Paul Krugman of the NY Times is startled by all the conservative accusations that speculation is to blame for the run-up in oil prices (Krugman and others are more inclined to blame surging consumption in India and China):

Aren’t conservatives supposed to believe in efficient markets, where competition is good for everyone?

But McCain is following the likes of Steve Forbes and many articles in places like the National Review, all claiming that oil prices are a bubble, soon to disappear — a claim they’ve been making for at least three years.

What’s going on?

I think that conservative belief that the market is always right is colliding with another, even more deeply held belief — that there are no limits, except for those imposed by tree-huggers.The idea that oil might really be getting hard to find, in spite of the magic of capitalism, is just unacceptable; so they insist that it’s all craziness in the futures markets.

It’s not just conservatives who are into blame-the-speculators mode, of course; but they’re the loudest voices. It’s really weird.

And now Joseph Lieberman wants to remove CalPERS from the commodity markets. I thought the reason conservatives encouraged pension funds to place their money in the markets was to reduce the potential for governmental support down the road. So, if pension funds make a killing in the markets that's a good thing. Right? Right?