“I am simply concerned that the commodities bubbles are causing global damage - and the root causes need to be addressed.”
Bubbles do cause damage, but they also self-correct. In the process, opportunities are created. Freedom is messy and imperfect. It is preferable to the alternative, imo.
Freegards.
To some poor sot in the third world, waiting three months for the correction to happen could well mean starvation.
In the process, opportunities are created. Freedom is messy and imperfect. It is preferable to the alternative, imo.
We have had a chain of bubbles, fueled by excessive liquidity and poor regulation - either too much (CRA) or too little (credit default swaps). As has been noted here and on other threads, it doesn't take a lot of cash to manipulate commodities, given the low margin requirements. Sanity could be restored by sane margin requirements and position limits such as in place on NYMEX.
What we are seeing is not about freedom, it is about brinksmanship in markets - activities akin to those that nearly brought down the global economy. And that is where we disagree. This isn't capitalism as I know it. In capitalism, you assume the risks to get the rewards. In this system, the investment banks get the rewards AND then get taxpayers to hedge their risks. That is wrong.