Posts by Brennan

Obama zeroes in on oil market manipulation

April 17, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

President Obama is expected to unveil a $52 million plan to confront manipulation in oil markets later today. He will reportedly ask Congress to “strengthen federal supervision of oil markets, increase penalties for market manipulation and empower regulators to increase the amount of money energy traders are required to put behind their transactions.”

Rising oil and gas prices have become a hot-button issue for the upcoming elections, and Republicans are slamming Obama’s energy policies, which [Read More...]

Filed Under: White House

Senators defend CFTC in court over position limits

April 16, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Carl Levin (D-MI) and nineteen other senators filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week to help the Commodity Futures Trading Commission defend its recently passed position limits in oil and other commodity markets aimed at stopping excessive speculation.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) filed their suit in December, claiming that the new rules “would force their members to drastically alter their businesses, cost them tens [Read More...]

Filed Under: position limits

Speculation and Criminal Manipulation of Food and Commodities Prices

April 13, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Michael Greenberger: Weak regulations on speculators swamping markets and lack of enforcement of existing laws on criminal intent, are driving up prices.

See Part 1 of the series Speculation and Criminal Manipulation of Food and Commodities Prices here.

Filed Under: The Real News

Gensler to Remain as CFTC Chairman Past Expiration Date Tomorrow

April 12, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Gary Gensler will continue as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Gensler’s term officially ends April 13, but federal rules allow him to retain his post until the end of 2013.

Obama can re-nominate Gensler if he chooses, but Republican opposition makes it a battle not worth fighting until after the election, given that Gensler can already serve an additional year. Were Obama to the election, his successor could nominate someone else at an [Read More...]

Filed Under: Wall Street

Milton Friedman proved wrong by aluminum market

April 11, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Peter Orszag’s Bloomberg op-ed this week argues that Milton Friedman’s principle of stabilizing speculation, in which speculation always acts to facilitate market efficiency, is not always true. Orszag, who is vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup and formerly President Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, uses the Aluminum market to illustrate his point:

The vast bulk of the aluminum price changes can be explained by physical supply-and-demand factors, such as the cost of energy, [Read More...]

Filed Under: Peter Orszag

Lawmakers Hold Hearing on Gas Prices and Excessive Oil Speculation

April 11, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

“Following weeks of surging gas prices, the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), held a hearing on the impact of excessive oil speculation Wednesday afternoon.

[Read More...]

Filed Under: Wall Street

SEC announces new Investor Advisory Committee

April 11, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Earlier this week the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the formation of a new 21-member Investor Advisory Committee to replace the former advisory committee, which was disbanded with the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. The Dodd Frank Act established the new advisory committee “to advise the Commission on regulatory priorities, the regulation of securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosure, and on initiatives to protect investor interests and to promote investor [Read More...]

Filed Under: Securities and Exchange Commission

India tightens position limits on agricultural commodities

April 3, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Following last week’s announcement to terminate all guar seed and guar gum contracts, India’s commodity market regulator, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC), says that it plans to to lower position limits–cutting the number of contracts any trader can hold in agricultural commodities. These recent measures to curb excessive speculation came after India’s food minister ordered an investigation into volatile prices.

“The review will be done now and we will be consulting with the exchanges as [Read More...]

Filed Under: position limits

High oil prices must be subject of criminal investigation

March 29, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

Watch Michael Greenberger, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and formerly a lawyer at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), talk about the need for a criminal investigation into Wall Street’s activity in oil markets and agricultural commodity markets.

Greenberger believes that if the Oil Speculation Task force “reconstituted” by Obama and led by AG Eric Holder showed that it was serious about its probe into [Read More...]

Filed Under: The Real News

New report claiming Volcker rule will damage commodity markets is misleading, says MIT professor

March 29, 2012 By Brennan Leave a Comment

On Wednesday IHS/CERA, released a report that claims shutting down commercial banks’ ability to “trade” in commodity futures markets will have drastic negative effects on these markets. The report throws around numbers surely meant to scare people away from reform:

The other authors estimate that freezing commercial banks’ ability to trade in oil and gas futures could lead to:

A $7.5 billion reduction in natural gas development and a related loss of 182,000 jobs; A cumulative [Read More...]

Filed Under: Volcker Rule

Posts by Brennan

Related Links