THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION (CFTC)

Behold the center of the problem. The CFTC is not doing its job. Indeed, the CFTC is working hard to make the situation worse, in order to help rich people get richer.

The CFTC is supposed to regulate futures exchanges, which look just like stock markets, but instead of trading stocks and bonds, people trade contracts to buy or sell something in the future at a specified price. People bet on the future prices of items such as food or oil.

As with stocks and bonds, the game is based on human perception, which is easily manipulated. Hence the CFTC was established in 1974 to keep the game fair, just as the SEC was established in 1934 to keep stock exchanges fair.

The CFTC oversees futures exchanges such as

· Chicago Board Options Exchange Futures Exchange
· Chicago Board of Trade
· Chicago Mercantile Exchange
· HedgeStreet
· U.S. Futures Exchange
· Kansas City Board of Trade
· Minneapolis Grain Exchange
· New York Mercantile Exchange
· New York Board of Trade
· OneChicago

In addition, the CFTC oversees 360 public brokerage houses (futures commission merchants), plus 38,000 commission-registered futures industry salespeople and associated persons, plus 2,500 commodity trading advisers and commodity pool operators, plus 3,000 members (traders) of the main exchanges listed above.

All these people trade contracts that are connected with oil, food, metals -- you name it. If an item has a fluctuating price, it can be traded.

To keep track of all this, the CFTC (http://www.cftc.gov/ ) maintains large regional offices in Chicago and New York, plus smaller regional offices in Kansas City and San Francisco, plus a sub-office of the Chicago regional office in Minneapolis.

In 1992 the CFTC had 600 staff members. However, since the CFTC no longer performs its function, it now has about 450 staff members that get paid $130 million per year from the government. These do-nothings are always whining for more money, and Bush wants to give them a $30 million raise as a bribe so they'll continue to uphold the current nightmare. Their job is to confuse the public and throw out lame excuses as to why they’re not doing their job.

For example, they say, “There’s no single solution to the current price crunch,” or, “It has to do with the Federal Reserve,” or, “We’re studying the problem,” or “It’s peak oil,” or just simply, “It’s very complex.” These are all lies, as you will see below.

Whenever anyone asks the CFTC to do something about out-of-control prices, the CFTC says, “We are doing something. We’re investigating.” (When israelis commit atrocities, and get called on them, they say, "We're investigating.") Indeed the CFTC has been “investigating” sky-high oil prices for the last six months, during which time the CFTC has deliberately allowed oil prices to rise by another 42 percent.

The CFTC’s 450 people work in secrecy. Their bosses are five commissioners appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Bush’s appointments are all greedy criminals (naturally). As President, Bush designates one of these five commissioners to be chairperson. Today the chairperson is a clown named Walter Lukken from Indiana, who has been with the CFTC since 2002, and was confirmed as Bush’s chairman yesterday (4 June 08).

Since Bush handpicks the CFTC commissioners, the commissioners naturally claim that speculation, manipulation, and lack of regulation have nothing to do with the price of food and oil.

A NIGHTMARE IS BORN

The CFTC did its job more or less okay for its first fifteen years. In those days, speculators (including pension funds, mutual funds, endowments, and other investors not directly tied to the food industry) were limited in the amount of trading they could do in specific commodities.

But starting in 1991, the CFTC embarked on a course of deregulation. It relaxed its rules, increasing limits for some of these investors, and exempting others altogether. The game was afoot.

The real nightmare took off in 2000 when Bush seized power. That’s when large energy traders (notably Bush’s buddies at Enron) got Congress to pass the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which allowed oil futures to be traded electronically "over the counter" -- that is, traded in unregulated markets outside the CFTC’s jurisdiction. This trick became known as the “Enron Loophole,” and it allowed oil to be traded in a global free-for-all. A gigantic casino was born. Prices started to climb higher and higher, and became truly insane after the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. (More about that below.)

After the Congress and the CFTC deregulated the trading of oil, the CFTC started deregulating all sorts of other commodities, especially food. On 22 April 08, CME Group Inc. (the world's largest grain exchange) requested CFTC permission to clear trades on over-the-counter grain swap contracts. CME wanted to play in the global casino.

The casino has pushed food prices so high that millions of people around the world now face death by famine. (Remember: famine kills more people than wars, disease, cyclones, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc etc etc) The more food and oil we produce, the more “gambling chips” are available for use in the casino, and the higher the prices rise. In other words, the more food we have, the more we starve, because of the global casino.

“Supply and demand” is irrelevant in this circus. The game is not about supply levels; it’s about betting on what the price will be in the future. It does not matter how much food or oil exists. All that matters is the price. If the price is too high, then ordinary people can’t eat, can’t drive their cars, and can’t heat their homes in winter. We can explore for more oil, or invest in “alternative fuels,” but this will only provide additional chips for the casino, and will therefore push prices even higher. In the casino, trying to bring down prices by increasing supplies is like trying to put out fire with gasoline.

Indeed, more and more farmland is being converted to grow corn for ethanol, instead of crops for food. It’s all about getting more chips (fuel commodities) to use in the fabulous casino, which sucks in more and more money. The casino is a black hole, draining the life of all mankind.

And remember: speculation is one thing, but manipulation is another. Since a lot of this game is done secretly, the biggest traders manipulate the casino. Little or no information about their activities gets out to the public. The fabulous casino has no windows.

Because this game has nothing to do with supply and demand, any economist who attributes rising prices to things like “rising demand from China and India” is a paid liar. Plenty of food and oil exists. Big traders like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are hoarding oil, betting the prices will go even higher. Goldman Sachs holds far more crude than exists in U.S. Strategic Reserve, and is also hoarding heating oil. That’s why the Saudis told Bush to get stuffed when he recently begged them to increase oil output. The Saudis told him what everyone knows: that production and supply have little to do with today’s prices.

The culprits aren’t the grocers or the gasoline station owners. Their profits have shrunk as prices have risen. Ten years ago, gas station owners made most of their money selling gas. Today they can only stay alive by selling snacks and drinks. High gasoline prices have put retailers near the limits on their lines of credit.

Meanwhile, anyone who uses a lot of fuel (e.g. truckers, airlines, etc.) is now facing bankruptcy. The only people getting rich are the big traders on Wall Street, in London, and in Dubai.

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/7075

The one problem I see with the article is that it seems to imply that the "Enron Loophole" was opened by Bush, when it was actually Bill Clinton who signed it into law.

Wow, a wakeupfromyourslumber article that doesn't blame Israel first for whatever issue of the hour.

And I thought it wasn't possible.

A bit more info. While it was Clinton who opened the Enron Loophole with his approvak of the bill, it was someone who is now one of John McCain's closest economic advisors who was personally responsible for the measure. Former Senator Phil Gramm added it to a larger budget bill in late 2000:



Now that the farm bill has closed the loophole, it will take an administration that actually believes in regulation to enforce it. McCain and Gramm certainly can't be trusted.

Since this is a confirmed fact, tell me why again this is shunted over to the "conspiracy theory" section?

Oh, it must be because two or more people planned to do something in secret.

Like sit around a table on Wall St. and write legislation to be stealthily inserted into a gargantuan bill in the middle of the night before anyone knew what hit them.....



Yeah, that's just CRAZY talk!

Pfft.

I don't think anybody disagrees that market speculation is one of the causes for rising commodity prices.

It probably was largely the OP's choice to use wakeupfromyourslumber, a noted christofascist conspiracy theory site, to make that argument.

The problem isn't the argument - it's peoples' choices to use unreliable sources to discuss the topic.

BTW, although the article does not, as is typically the case with wakeupfromyourslumber, argue that only speculators of a particular ethnic background are responsible for the problem, I went to examine the entire article of the OP and found a wonderful cartoon next to it.



Captioned: it ain't racism when it's the truth. (Of course, that's every bigot's excuse.)

I would prefer if this piece of crap site not be used as a source. Once again, not disagreeing with the argument, disagreeing with the choice to use this source to argue it.

After reading your explanation for moving the article I did a quick view of the site. I found nothing "christo-fascist" in it. Nor did I find articles derogatory of a certain "ethnic background." They did however state contempt for "zionist neocons."
Since zionist neocons are of a philosophy whose adherents come from christianity, judeaism and secular beliefs, I couldn't say for a certainty that the site was anti-jew. Christo-fascist are however pro-zionists. Since the site is anti-zionist I could not confirm that the site owners were themselves christ-fascist.
Sure, they are provocative in an annoying way. And yeah, they ridicule Obama...or the right-wing view of him...I have a hard time interpreting ironic satire. But I don't see anything racist or anti-semetic about being critical of zionists, their murderous policies, or critisizing Israel. I agree that zionism and the current rendition of Israel are ungodly falsehoods that have brought nothing but grief to the world and to a certain ethnicity. It is not dubious consiratorial thinking to say so, or to quote from somebody who is not hesitant to say so.

Here's what they say of themselves:
"This site was born from a desire to expose America's fraudulent monetary system and the evil of charging interest on money loaned.

It has since grown into a labor of love and a quest for truth and justice in all aspects of life and human culture with a special focus on political and economic justice - free from racism and oppression. "

But, thanks for bringing this article back up after it had been buried for so long. Nice work.

You're being deliberately dense. That's fine.

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/taxonomy/term/10337

"http://www.iamthewitness.com/audio/Charles.E.Coughlin/index.php

Coughlin knew what the Jewish money changers were up to, so what has changed?"

[snip]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

After the 1936 election, Coughlin increasingly expressed sympathy for the fascist policies of Hitler and Mussolini, as an antidote to Bolshevism. His CBS radio broadcasts became suffused with antisemitic themes. He blamed the Depression on an "international conspiracy of Jewish bankers", and also claimed that Jewish bankers were behind the Russian Revolution. On November 27, 1938, he said "There can be no doubt that the Russian Revolution ... was launched and fomented by distinctively Jewish influence

[snip]

I notice he dropped the "Zionist neocon" bit there when he idenitified who he really meant.

Here's another great link.

"How International Jewry Prompted A German Backlash"

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/7194

I also notice once again he wasn't referring to "Zionist neocons" there, either.

Shall I continue?

Now riddle me this. What does America's monetary system have to do with Zionism?

If you have an explanation for this that doesn't involve Jews, I have several choice bridge properties available for you.

It's a shit source whose primary goal is slathering around anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

You need to find a better source for your information, because wakeupfromyourslumber doesn't cut it, sorry.

Seeker means it, too. I'm still trying to unload the stock options in DeLorean Auto he sold me.

"What does America's monetary system have to do with Zionism?"

The owners of the system and their promotion of that philosophy.
Demanding an answer that doesn't include Jews would be a preconditional bias.
As for other players, I would include Anglo-Isrealites, Rockefellars, and, what the heck...Jesuits.
All of them cristo-fascist and zionists...meeting your precondition not to mention jews.
Anything less than submitting evidence of their purity and detatchment of worldly schemes is anti-semetic. No?

Nevertheless, this debate has absolutely nothing to do with the article.
Had you stayed focused on the points mentioned in that article you could have avoided having any burr stuck firmly up your butt. But, it is your butt. Do with it as you please. As for me, I don't care who tells me the truth, or what their source may be. As long as they tell the truth. The writter of this article managed to get passed his bias long enough to do that. Good for him. You however, regard the source to be more important than the truthfullness of the message. Indicating that you may have more than a burr in your butt. Deal with it.

Theodor Herzl was dead before the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. I think you have to leave him off the hook.



Who else? Illuminati? Bilderbergers? Bohemian Grove? CFR? Committee of 300? The Merovingians?

I mean, come on dude, the Jesuits are left wing liberation theologists these days, nobody's been including them in conspiracy theories since the counter-reformation.

BTW. What is an "Anglo Israelite"?



If you quote bullshit sources, expect me to be there to say they're bullshit.

And you deal with that - if you can't, go fuck yourself.

BTW. What is an "Anglo Israelite"?

A faction of Wasps that believe they have a bloodline of the House of David.

OK. I can see why this is in Conspiracy Theories still.

Nevermind.

Sorry, anti-Semitic/white nationalist/Father Coughlin sites are not credible on "Zionism" or anything else.

Don't like hearing about it? Too bad, because as long as you try to push them, you're stuck with it.

iamthewitness = Daryl Bradford Smith, an anti-Semite and white nationalist so completely insane even other nationalists think he's over the top.