Money and Markets in the News
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01-04-08
Who’s to Blame for Soaring Commodity Prices?
Dunstan Prial
FOXBusiness
NEW YORK ? The line separating “speculators” from “investors” is thin.
Yet speculators ? and the term is usually meant to be derogatory — are being blamed for soaring commodity prices (notably $100 for a barrel of crude oil) and there is growing support for measures to rein in pure speculation on products deemed important to U.S. economic interests.
In Washington, legislation has been introduced that would broaden the enforcement powers of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the agency charged with regulating commodities markets. And a coalition of groups that market energy to consumers and U.S. industry is behind an effort to close the so-called ?Enron Loophole,? laws that exempted entire markets from regulation and dubbed for the once-powerful energy-trading company that collapsed in scandal in late 2001.
Consumer advocates and energy dependent businesses getting slammed by higher fuel prices say sophisticated ?investors? at hedge funds and investment banks have used these unregulated markets to artificially drive up the price of commodities.
?All we?re looking for is the same set of ground rules to ensure that there is the same disclosure? across all commodities markets, said Eric DeGesero, executive vice president of the Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey.
See the full articles here:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/article/whos-blame-soaring-commodity-prices_423534_55.html
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