Comment Text:
Sirs:
It’s time for you to do your job, and impose limits on the rampant speculation that’s driving up the price of commodities unnecessarily.
Speculation is designed to be for the ultimate consumer; in the case of, say, oil, the speculators are the airlines, electric companies, etc, that need to freeze their prices for consumables for a certain amount of time so they can predict their business model; speculation was NOT designed for quick-buck artists.
KISS: impose a realistic minimum; say, 50%, instead of the current 10%. Being able to control $100 worth of a commodity with only $10 of your own money only begs for abuse. Raising the percentage will eliminate the ‘quick buck’ speculators that are creating big profits for themselves that the rest of us have to pay for with inflated prices.
Another positive change you could effect would be to institute a minimum time period; once you ‘lock in’ your speculated price, you cannot buy or sell the commodity for, say, 6 months. That would drop the incentive for the quick-buck artists, but falls right in line with the desires of the legitimate above-mentioned speculators, who are looking to lock in long-term prices anyway.
These ideas: raising the minimum upfront percentage, and affecting a 6 month time frame, would be a win-win for everybody: the economy in general, the legitimate ‘ultimate consumer’ speculators (whose final prices would fall without the interference of the quick-buck artists), and the man in the street whose price for consumables is at the moment grossly inflated by quick-buck speculators. The only loser would be the quick-buck artists themselves; they’ll have to find another slimy way to make a living.
Thanks for your considerations.
Bruce Paladino
206 Pinto Lane
Ormond Beach, FL 32174
[email protected]
