Comment Text:
My name is Christina Carter. I live in a suburb of Tampa, FL. I received an e-mail from Sen. Bill Nelson and agree with him 100%. As a single female, a mortgage holder, a voter, a full-time student, and a worker, I can barely afford to keep gas in my car to get to work, let alone keep the car-insurance active and pay my bills if I want gas.
No gas means no work; no work means no money; no money means no paying my bills. But when I am filling up my Accord's gas tank twice a week, at $55 bucks a pop, something has got to give; usually that something is either my mortgage (I'm always two months behind), my car insurance (I hope to pay it the day before they cancel it, because there are lots of others with no insurance now), or I sit home not working so I don't have to get more gas that I cannot afford.
Will you guys please tighten the oversite on these speculators who are jacking up the prices of everything we need daily. If you do not, we will be in this recession environment for years to come.
Thank you.
Christina Carter
1503 21st St SE
Ruskin, FL 33570
“A loaf of whole wheat. A gallon of gasoline. A pair of Levi’s. Americans are paying more for many basic items this year, making tough economic times even tougher.”
Part of the reason, according to The New York Times, is that speculators are still playing games in the marketplace. Our regulators allow them to wildly bid up the price for everyday items we need, like wheat, gasoline and heating oil. Click here to read The Times article.
Despite a clear directive from Congress to rein in excessive speculation, our watchdogs in Washington seem to be listening more to Wall Street, and not acting quickly enough to protect American consumers. Consider: On any given day about half of the oil futures contracts are bought and sold by traders, not companies that use oil, like airlines and power companies. And the sky’s the limit when it comes to how much of the market traders can control.
To help stop the manipulation of commodities prices, send an e-mail now to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - and tell the members to stop speculators from interfering with the price of food and energy. Tell the commissioners to stop listening to Wall Street lobbyists. Tell them to impose meaningful position limits.
And while you’re at it, forward this note to your friends, family and others who care about this issue. If the commission hears from enough folks, it’ll adopt stronger rules next month when a vote is scheduled.
Sincerely,
