Federal regulators vote to curb financial speculation in commodities
Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: October 18, 2011 07:00:35 PM
WASHINGTON — Big financial speculators will be limited in their ability to manipulate the price of oil and 27 other commodities under a set of new rules adopted Tuesday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Yet even as the CFTC approved the new rules to rein in excessive speculation on a 3-2 party-line vote — with Democratic commissioners in the majority — some financial-market analysts and lawmakers in Congress complained that the new rules fall short of what's needed to curb speculation effectively.
"This rule begins the process of doing that, but much more needs to be done," Dennis Kelleher, president of the advocacy group Better Markets, said in a statement. "Speculators' casino mentality brings them big profits but hurts everyone else from the kitchen table to the gas pump."
In a series of investigative reports over the past three years, the Washington Bureau has shown that financial speculation is driving up the prices of commodities, including oil, coffee and cotton — and that price volatility in those goods is not resulting simply from the ordinary market forces of supply and demand among producers and consumers.
(More here.)
McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: October 18, 2011 07:00:35 PM
WASHINGTON — Big financial speculators will be limited in their ability to manipulate the price of oil and 27 other commodities under a set of new rules adopted Tuesday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Yet even as the CFTC approved the new rules to rein in excessive speculation on a 3-2 party-line vote — with Democratic commissioners in the majority — some financial-market analysts and lawmakers in Congress complained that the new rules fall short of what's needed to curb speculation effectively.
"This rule begins the process of doing that, but much more needs to be done," Dennis Kelleher, president of the advocacy group Better Markets, said in a statement. "Speculators' casino mentality brings them big profits but hurts everyone else from the kitchen table to the gas pump."
In a series of investigative reports over the past three years, the Washington Bureau has shown that financial speculation is driving up the prices of commodities, including oil, coffee and cotton — and that price volatility in those goods is not resulting simply from the ordinary market forces of supply and demand among producers and consumers.
(More here.)
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