This is one of the best descriptions of how we came to this point in history and how oil prices are being driven.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_.../JE06Dj07.html
and here is where it all started. The price of oil is just one of the many gifts we've been handed by Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/hist...gislation.html