Comment Text:
My name is Sherri Shadrick, and I currently limit my consumption to two tankfuls of gasoline per month to stay within my family's budget. Each time the price of gasoline rises, I must further restrict my car travel so that I do not overspend our household budget. Using public transportation in my city would mean my usual 10-minute drive by car would turn into several bus trips of at least a 1-1/2 hour duration each way.
While many factors may contribute to present-day’s highly volatile commodity prices on items such as food and oil, it is evidently clear that over-speculation is partially responsible, as shown in dozens of studies conducted by many respected institutions, such as Princeton, MIT, Petersen Institute, University of London, Yale, the United Nations, and the U.S. Senate.
Speculation imposes financial hardships on families like mine across the country. Sudden rises in gas and food prices force us to make difficult decisions and sacrifices as our stagnating incomes are squeezed even further to cover basic necessities. When family budgets have already been "cut to the bone," there are no available options to further economize. Especially now, with so many families struggling, and an unrelentingly high unemployment rate, we cannot allow speculators to continue to unduly affect our food and gas prices.
Effective and strong position limits rules must now be put in place which have no opportunity of being undermined by exemptions or exceptions. The CFTC should not allow any exemptions or exceptions to banks, hedge funds or other financial players.
The impact of speculation activities needs to be curbed now, so American families can begin to recover from the financial losses brought on by the irresponsible actions of Wall Street, credit rating agencies, major banks, investment firms, and insurance companies.
Thank you for your consideration.
