When the price of crude oil rose fivefold between 2003 and 2007, it was clear that speculators were making profits at the expense of humanity. Many so-called "free markets" are in reality controlled by speculators, who lobby to prevent scrutiny of their activities. Monetary authorities in the US and the UK have failed to curb speculation, which has led to a massive rise in commodity prices across the world in the previous decade. Instead, they have helped them by relaxing their already weak regulations.

While in the UK, the monetary authorities have close ties with financial institutions and individuals who make most of their profits from speculation, in the US, high-level officials are almost always chosen from among people who are experts in market-distorting activities.

For example, former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was in charge of companies that indulged in uncontrolled speculation, and the present Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, when he was the president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, had been indulgent toward the very financial entities that caused the global financial crisis. In fact, Paulson and Geithner collaborated to ensure that US taxpayers paid more than $1 trillion to rescue the financial companies that have cost international investors $4 trillion during the global financial crisis.