Raymond Learsy

RAYMOND J. LEARSY, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, launched into the fast paced risk filled world of physical commodities trading beginning some five decades ago. In 1963 he started his own firm and over the course of more than two decades expanded from the United States into Canada, Europe, the Far East, South America and Africa trading in bulk raw materials for the chemical and agricultural fertilizer industry, crude oil and Liquefied Natural Gas. In the early eighties Learsy became a private investor and from 1980 to 1986 served as a Presidential appointee in the Reagan Administration to the National Council of the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently serves on the Board of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Learsy’s analysis of the international oil trade, OPEC, and its impact on the American and world economies calls for transparency on the commodities exchanges as a remedy to unbridled excess and corruption. Learsy has written extensively on the subject and has been featured on National Review Online, The New York Times, the Pipeline and Gas Journal, and on CNBC. Learsy has been a regular contributor on issues relevant to energy on the Huffington Post since 2006. He is also the author of the current book, Ruminations on the Distortion of Oil Prices and Crony Capitalism, as well as Oil and Finance: The Epic Corruption Continues 2010-2012, Oil and Finance: The Epic Corruption 2006-2010 and Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil’s Grip On our Future.