Where Washington has given ground

MarcK asked in the requests thread about commodity speculators: “I would like to hear more about the commodities market and how banks like Goldman have been manipulating the prices. No one seems to focus on these speculators when the price of oil and even copper goes up for no good reason.”

FEW relationships in life are as tight as that between rising oil prices and increasing complaints about commodity speculators. Nation reporter Chris Hayes sees the cost of oil going up and unholsters his anti-speculation column:

1. "Nothing sparks spasms of poor economic commentary like rising oil prices. From left to right, pundits and politicians outdo each other at accusing evildoers of hurting good people. This week, a Democratic congressional committee held a hearing on the issue of high gas prices and excessive oil speculation.

I have often in the past quoted Albert Edwards of Société Générale, but Dylan Grice, his colleague on the SocGen Cross Asset Research Team, is equally sharp (and entertaining). Below are a few food-for-thought paragraphs and a chart from his latest report – on a flavor-of-the-month topic, commodities

Mark Sunshine submits: As published on Forbes.com

Craig Pirrong submits: I have written a comment letter about the CFTC’s proposed rule on position limits, which I will submit tomorrow. A draft is here. It’s fairly long, so I’ll summarize it here.

Craig Pirrong submits: The Futures Industry Association, a trade group for futures commission merchants and exchanges, has come out strongly in opposition to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's [CFTC] proposed energy position limits.

Armcharles submits: As a follow up to my post on Friday about how the CFTC's proposed oil and gas position limits are ultimately wrongheaded, I wanted to talk a bit more about why position limits won't solve the problem, and why these regulations are ultimately bad for the markets they are supposedly trying to protect.