Comment Text:
To: Commodity Futures Trading Commission
From: Robert M. Trudeau
Date: September 27, 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
Food and energy are basic necessities for all Americans. According to The New York Times, speculators are able to dramatically affect the prices we pay for these necessities. Your regulators allow them to wildly bid up the price for everyday items we need, like wheat, gasoline and heating oil. Allowing speculators to bid up the price of commodities beyond what normal market forces would dictate is a cruel financial imposition on Americans, especially in the difficult economic times in which we find ourselves.
Despite a clear directive from Congress to rein in excessive speculation, you seem to be listening more to Wall Street, and not acting quickly enough to protect American consumers. 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.
It is long past time for you to put the interests of ordinary citizens above those of commodities speculators. Stop the manipulation of prices we have to pay by those who are making a profit at the expense of the taxpayers who are paying your salaries.
Frustratedly,
Robert M. Trudeau
4231 Barbaras Ct
Camino, CA 95709
[email protected]
