Comment Text:
I am writing to express my disappointment with the current state of affairs. I don't want to write a blindly angry message at the wrong party; but I am angry and I'm pretty sure if there's somebody to complain too, you're it. As far as I know, capitalism is ruled by supply and demand. For all time (mostly), supply was produced by the suppliers and the demand was engendered by end users or manufactures who used raw materials to make end products. Price was set according to these parties' interests and pocket books. However, now we have the SCUM (and I mean it, absolute SCUM) that are 'futures traders'. Now they have entered the market place and, to put it mildly, have wrought havoc. It is not just in commodities markets, they could be found culpable of exacerbating fears and market swings in EVERY market, but you are the commodities commission so we'll keep the discussion limited. There should be no place for these people to, on a whim, insert themselves into the supply chain and inflate prices by whatever margin they deem bearable by the market. The products whose prices they pump up aren't abstract financial products that barely make sense to ordinary Americans, it's FOOD and FUEL. Like it or not, we are a society that DEPENDS on commodities. We can NOT have these ASSHOLES just taking money out of people's pockets because no one says 'stop it'.
As an industrial chemist, i could talk about things like the bonkers price swings of tallow and almost any wax but I'm not sure what sorts of those commodities have futures and the effect of speculation on the industries new standard of unreliability of prices.
I mean, if anything, you guys should be concerned with that; constant price swings in raw materials. That is no way for a business ecosystem to exist. Suppliers jack prices around, manufacturers start losing trust in those price modifications, long standing relationships have to be broken in order to source stuff from CHINA. Sometimes (all the times) there are actual shortages and surpluses of commodities. But I just HOPE and PRAY that you guys are doing EVERYTHING in your power to make sure that speculators aren't themselves causing these horrible conditions in marketplaces and price hikes to American consumers at a time when our economy can least deal with either situation.
If you need more power, ask for it. The same way i'm writing to you, I'll write to congress. If you're part of the problem, look into the mirror and say "am I doing what I can to stop several hundred rich white guys from making EVEN MORE money from the already broke down disheartened American masses?".
Good luck, those rich white guys are pretty wiley
