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iUniverse-published author Raymond J. Learsy’s latest book Oil and Finance: The Epic Corruption was written after a long career as a commodities trader. Learsy began trading in the fifties and later set up his own firm before becoming a private investor in the eighties. So he was in a good position to see the influence that the oil industry had on the world.

Oil and Finance, published by iUniverse, is in fact Learsy’s second book, and it’s already making waves, having been listed as one of the Kirkus Best of Indie books for 2011. iUniverse Publishing caught up with Learsy to talk about his work.

As a physical commodities trader over several decades I was inured in the functioning of international markets and the formation of prices conditioned by supply and demand. Over the past decade or more I became increasingly astonished how the formation of commodity prices had left all vestige of supply and demand and the increasing influence of the oil industry on government and the role being played by the financial sector's increasing hegemony over our lives, not least of which in the distortion of commodity prices especially as regards to oil. This, in spite of the fact that oil is fundamental to our economy and in turn to our national security. The lack of action by our government, its agencies and a somnolent press continued to persist to the point I felt perhaps I could contribute by writing about these issues as a way of making others aware of what I felt were core concerns on matters vital to all our well-being.

Oil and Finance is a collection of your Huffington Post articles. Did they require much research? How did you go about it? 

Yes, they required considerable research, but more importantly was the experience that helped me on a day to day basis to put the dots together, to know what to look for, to understand how events interacted. My research per se was aided enormously by the access my computer availed to vital on call services like Google, Wikipedia, etc.

Besides detailing the problems of the oil industry, you also present a call to arms. Why do you think change is so necessary?

The debilitating impact of billions upon billions of American consumer dollars going to oil interests has an enormous impact on our economy distorting fundamentally the concept of price’s relationship to value received, not to speak of the distortion of our spending priorities shortchanging important alternative needs that would be enhancing to our society. It further enriches those nations and those totalitarian governments whose societies are riddled with the ‘oil curse’, that is oil revenues keeping oppressive regimes in power and whose policies present an ever growing danger to democratic nations.

How did you become a writer for the Huffington Post?  

Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post had read my first book, “Over a Barrel” shortly before starting up the Huffington Post late in 2005. We met and she asked me if I would write for the Huffington Post. I did, and have become a regular contributor to the Huffington Post ever since.