Commentary on the impact of futures trading on oil prices, nice thoughts about Japan, Christianity goes global, European banks new challenge, complicated relations, and Andrew Coyne asks how Canadians should respond to the Conservatives big F35 whopper.

There is a rising argument against allowing options trading for profit in oil.

New York Times -- The High Cost of Gambling on Oil
THE drastic rise in the price of oil and gasoline is in part the result of forces beyond our control: as high-growth countries like China and India increase the demand for petroleum, the price will go up.

Related.

McClatchy -- Finance expert says speculators are behind high oil and gasoline prices
Financial speculators are gambling on oil the same way they gambled on the housing market a few years ago — a frightening prospect for the fragile economy, a Democratic congressional committee was told Wednesday.

Some things Japan does do very well.

Financial Times -- Memo from Tokyo: what Japan can teach us
In 1977 Margaret Thatcher visited the Nissan car factory outside Tokyo.

Interesting debate about the shift of Christianity to the Southern Hemisphere over the past 100 years.

The Agenda -- Christianity Goes Global
Christianity isn't in decline. In the past century, the religion has more than tripled in size. As Europe and North America become increasingly secular, the "global south" is converting to Christianity. The Agenda asks: What does this mean for the future of the faith?

After being bailed out by the ECB now what for Europe’s troubled banks.

Telegraph -- Europe's banks beached as ECB stimulus runs dry
The European Central Bank's €1 trillion (£824bn) lending spree over the winter has stored up a host of fresh problems, leaving parts of the banking system more vulnerable than before as the short-term "sugar rush" nears exhaustion.

Difficult quadrilateral.

East Asia Forum -- The India–US–China–Pakistan strategic quadrilateral
Although the disputed border between China and India is often highlighted as the major sticking point in Sino–Indian relations, in reality it has remained relatively peaceful since the end of the 1962 war, and the potential for overt military conflict in the region remains minimal.

Conservatives caught with both hands in the cookie jar, so what?

canada.com -- The F-35 scandal — when governments lie, how do we respond?
The Conservative government continues to maintain that it didn't know it was supposed to tell the public the full costs of the F-35 purchase: that the $10 billion it left out of the total was not a lie or even a mistake, but simply reflected its honest belief about how these things should be accounted, or at any rate always have been.