Actually it's the government causing these price fluxes in commodities. Think about it. The gov subsidizes farmers for corn to make ethanol, thus raising the cost of food. The gov raises taxes on gas while putting more regs on oil companies to use more ethanol and enviromental formulations for phony global warming, thus driving the cost to refine oil up, while environmental wackos halt any new refinery construction. Since dems took over congress in '06, prices have skyrocketed. Dems are the true oil barons, not repubs. Al Gore owns 20k shrs of OXY stock and corn, etc., DUH!