Category Archives: Commodities

Senators Try to Scuttle Syngenta/ChemChina Merger, in a Harbinger for U.S. Posture Toward Chinese Investment

This is a big week for the future of American industry. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping will meet one-on-one with President Obama on the sidelines of a summit in Washington. The Chinese will apparently use the meeting to make a new offer on a bilateral investment treaty that would pave the way for more foreign direct […]

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CFTC Commissioner Giancarlo Admits to Hijacking Advisory Committee to Boost Commodity Speculators

Last week, an advisory committee to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission produced a highly dubious report recommending that the agency abandon the Dodd-Frank mandate of setting position limits in futures markets to eliminate excessive speculation. The report was just an enhanced form of lobbying; eight of the nine members of the Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) have ties to industries that would personally benefit from killing the rule.

The big question was how an official advisory committee of a federal agency could turn into a purely distilled conduit for corporate talking points? And the answer is Christopher Giancarlo, the lone Republican commissioner on CFTC at the moment, who took advantage of the committee, twisted it to his own ends, and produced a work product destined to be used in future litigation to overturn the position limits rule.

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