Comment Text:
To the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
I would like to encourage you to implement the Dodd-Frank Act as thoroughly as possible.
I believe that it is clear that excessive speculation in food and energy commodities is partially responsible for the volatility in food prices worldwide. This volatility has caused poor people in large parts of the world to have to suffer hunger, because they cannot afford the inflated food prices, inflated because of the actions of Western financial institutions that are seeking to make profits out of those food prices.
I therefore you to implement the proposed rules regarding aggregate speculative position limits, to prevent excessive speculation. At this time of fragile economic recovery, we cannot allow speculators to unduly affect food prices.
Congress has called for exemptions from these limits for bona fide hedgers. I ask that the Commission define that term in the strictest sense possible, limiting exemptions to businesses that deal in physical commodities and use markets to hedge commercial risk in those commodities. Banks, hedge funds, private equity and all passive investors in commodities should not be deemed as bona fide hedgers. Institutions hedging price directional bets such as commodity index swaps, Exchange Traded Funds and Exchange Traded Notes also should not be considered as bona fide hedgers.
Thank you.
Yours, Brent Cutts.
