2) I think Willie accelerated and pushed the envelope higher than it otherwise should have been, but remember, the other exchanges did naturally achieve these prices on their own. Bitstamp and BTCe were both over $1000 and China actually outpaced Mt.Gox during the November bubble. Think of it like them starting a fire, they provided the kickstarter and everyone else brought the jet fuel.
The exchanges are all going to be very close to each other in price (assuming of course you can get money in/out of each). Anything anything of them does to force the price up or down, is going to be mirrored in every other exchange whether they like it or not
to a degree, but the prices need to reflect real demand. Eventually this sort of activity results in a collapse. In the meanwhile the market is characterized by speculators cheering the price, which is precisely what we see with BTC.