As featured on The Huffington Post: When it comes to opining on Israel and the ongoing tensions and deliberations between Israelis and Palestinians, the views of the likes of President Jimmy Carter (his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid) and Secretary of State Kerry among other dignitaries and pundits are not far apart. Their host of scribbles and…
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Jimmy Carter, John Kerry and Their Best Friends
The Smoking Gun of Higher Oil Prices
As featured on The Huffington Post: There, in plain sight for all to read, the highly influential New York Times, in an article about the manipulative speculation in ethanol markets and the obscure but phenomenally profitable ethanol credits (having skyrocketed more than 20 times in the last six months) and in turn its impact on the price for gasoline…
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Syria as Russia’s Oil Price Tool
As featured on The Huffington Post: The opening paragraph in the Financial Times‘ May 31, 2013 review of Thane Gustafson’s history of the Russian oil industry, Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia, says it all: In no other big economy do oil and gas play such a vital role as in Russia. They account…
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Blatant Distortion and Manipulation of Oil Prices Laid Bare
Friday was a red letter day for the oil producers. In the space of three hours, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange leapt from $104.30/barrel to $106.94/bbl., finally closing the day at $106.42/bbl. A staggering range for a commodity…
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Egypt’s Darkness and Weapons Into Plowshares
As featured on The Huffington Post: America’s military aid to the current military government of Egypt is the focus of criticism from many sides. Here in the United States both Senator John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have called on President Obama to suspend all military aid to the interim government…
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Banker Lies and Misrepresentation — The Present and Lessons From the Past
As featured on The Huffington Post: Yesterday U.S. prosecutors accused two low-level JPMorgan executives with criminal charges of wire fraud and falsifying regulatory filings of risky and complex credit derivatives that led to the bank’s massive loses in the ‘London Whale’ scandal. JPMorgan, as do all banks, had the obligation to honestly report its assets…
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BIOGRAPHY
Raymond J. Learsy, a graduate of the Wharton School, made his life in the fast-paced, risk-filled world of commodities trading, beginning in 1959. In 1963, he started his own firm and over twenty years expanded from the U.S. into Canada, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Brazil, and Pakistan, trading in an array of bulk raw materials and commodities, shipping to customers worldwide. In the 1980s, he shifted gears as a private investor, from 1982 to 1988, served as a Reagan appointee to the National Endowment for the Arts...
