Comment Text:
It's encouraging to see that at least one Senator (Bill Nelson) understands some of the manipulative games being played in the stock market by speculators. What Bill Nelson didn't mention (or he doesn't know), is that we're not talking about a group of wealthy and powerful players in the commodities arena, but about hedge funds (with billions and billions of dollars at their disposal) and big banks, who can borrow money at close to 0% interest from the Federal Reserve, and freely buy contracts for electricity, oil, wheat, corn, soybeans, and other commodities, thereby driving up the price that ordinary Americans pay for these essential items in our lives.
Politicians who rail against the imposition of any taxes that might discourage the "job creators" seem not to realize that billionaire investors aren't interested in starting new businesses, with the risk of success or failure that comes into play. They're more interested in using their capital to speculate in commodities that can make them millions of dollars in a single day---without the mess of payrolls, tax returns, personnel issues, advertising goods or services to the public, etc. There is no answer for America's problems with the unregulated investment rules that currently apply.
