I would offer that it comes back down to basics. If the supply-demand equation is tight, then it's fertile ground for volatility. And volatility is what drags the speculators into this game, because they can make a lot of money at it. In that world, you're right. All of us who are just trying to plan our production runs and acquire enough stock can be victims of it.
Dane is right. You can hedge your requirements in different ways, but then you're locked into a certain future, and if the price goes lower, you feel like it's like the old mortgage game. Mortgages today are a bit different from when I was younger. You had 12% interest rates and you were trying to lock in. But a lot of people now, just as Dane was describing in terms of energy purchases, are going with the market because the differences don't seemed to be large enough.
Maybe we're in a new world where people will have to forward buy and play the old traditional mortgage game of trying to hedge their risks. To the extent that we can get fundamentals right in this country, to ensure enough investment in infrastructure and resources, then perhaps we can be a little long in our supply, which then will have a dampening effect, in terms of globally induced-type markets. There's no perfect solution.