It grates on the nerves of a thinking person to endure all the political posturing that blames Big Oil and speculators for this year's explosion in oil prices. We prefer this more sensible analysis of the oil price run-up offered by the brainiacs at Wharton.

If you don't have time and tolerance for academics, here's a more down-to-earth summary from thomasnet.com that says pretty much the same thing.