Thank you Pillars. That was actually quite interesting. Particularly the way the legislation was slipped in at the eleventh hour in the waning days of the Clinton administration. I doubt that very many even knew about it. I would love to know who was responsible for inserting that deregulation stuff into the omnibus bill. Iv'e read Bernsteins "Four Pillars of Investing", but you have Five Pillars. What's the fifth?
Try Phil Gramm, husband of Wendy Gramm, chairwoman of the CFTC and and REPUBLICAN senator from Texas ( 1985-2002). "Five weeks after she resigned from head of the CFTC, Enron appointed Mrs. Gramm to its Board of Directors, where she served on the Board's Audit Committee, in charge of verifying Enron's accounting procedures and other detailed financial information. Enron spent $3.45 million in lobbying expenses in 1999 and 2000 to deregulate the trading of energy futures, among other issues. In December 2000, Phil Gramm helped muscle a bill through Congress without a committee hearing that deregulated energy commodity trading. This act allowed Enron to operate an unregulated power auction -- EnronOnline -- that quickly gained control over a significant share of California's electricity and natural gas market. Phil Gramm's legislation was in conflict with the explicit recommendations of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which is composed of representatives from the Department of Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Working group expressly recommended against deregulating energy commodity trading because the traders would be in strong positions to manipulate prices and supply."
I don't think much of CFTC, they target smaller organisations, when governments get involved CFTC is powerless.
yeah, this was yesterday, testimony before congress, broadcasted on CSPAN ------ the aircraft carriers have left port already, they are gathering mid-point some 463 miles east of Oahu... the intermitent signals that the radar operators are picking up now, are being mis-read as a flight of B-17's from Long Beach, CA can you feel it?, its in the aire..... Pearl Harbor II coming to a gasoline station near you....
It is surprising that even supposed traders buy into the story that "speculators" are to blame for oil prices. If investment banks are supposedly hoarding oil, why have the stock numbers plunged over the last couple months while the price spiked. As for Enron - look how well they did after their influence led to deregulation of the nat gas market. In the end, the market evens things out. By the way, if Congress really cared about any of this they would be looking into the repeal of Glass Steagall and why banks are now allowed to speculate with free fiat money and then get taxpayer bailouts when they blow their accounts.