Posts Tagged ‘regulation’
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
A day after a source close to the MF Global investigation told the Wall Street Journal that client money may have vaporized, another unnamed source close to the investigation tells the New York Times that investigators know where the money went.
Actually the MF Global Inc. trustee’s report released earlier this month pinpointed where much of the money was stuck and the main question that needed to be asked is why is everyone still quoting the $1.2 billion figure when it simply doesn’t add up. I guess a simple math question is not as sexy as citing unnamed sources.
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Tags: CFTC, regulation
Posted in MF Global, Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
There was a surreal exchange between Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Gary Gensler and Commissioner Michael Dunn during Tuesday’s open meeting of the Commission where final rules for position limits and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) core principles were approved. (more…)
Tags: CFTC, Gary Gensler, regulation
Posted in Spec limits | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Earlier this month we asked, “Is government manipulation of markets the answer?” in reaction to the release of a study by the United Nations Counsel of Trading and Development (UNCTAD).
Earlier this week the answer from the Obama Administration appears to be “yes” as they decided to open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) along with the International Energy Agency (IEA)to make-up for lost Libyan production. The decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. SPR over the next 30 days seems to be a stretch of the emergency role of the SPR and could be an omen of a slippery slope towards more government intervention. (more…)
Tags: manipulation, markets, oil, regulation, strategic petroleum reserve
Posted in Markets, Regulatory/actions | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 24th, 2011
It’s not easy being a regulator these days, especially in the foamy wake of the Dodd-Frank Act’s tsunami crashing ashore at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (we island dwellers are authorized to use maritime analogies). Congress (remember them?) told the CFTC to create scores of new rules by July 16 (two days after the hang-over from Bastille Day, by the way). That is exactly 360 days after the 200+ page tome was enacted (I will leave it to numerologists to explain that). (more…)
Tags: CFTC, Congress, dodd-frank, regulation
Posted in Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Friday, June 24th, 2011
If you come to a fork in the road, take it. — Yogi Berra
Tags: dodd-frank, economy, Housing, regulation
Posted in economy | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against three energy trading firms and two individuals charging them with unlawfully manipulating and attempting to manipulate WTI crude oil prices traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) from January 2008 to April 2008.
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Tags: CFTC, regulation, speculators
Posted in Manipulation, Spec limits, Speculators | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
When I first heard of the Nasdaq OMX/Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) counteroffer for the NYSE Euronext, which has a merger agreement in place with Deutsche Börse, my first thought was that it could not stand up to a Department of Justice review. You are talking about the two biggest stock markets in the United States that account for all or nearly all of new offerings.
I remember arguing with a colleague that merging the two largest U.S. stock exchanges would not be allowed. We talked about the Chicago Mercantile Exchange acquisition of the Chicago Board of Trade and how some folks thought it could be held up by antitrust concerns. I recall that the CME and CBOT’s argument was that they did not compete against each other directly as the CME’s main products were short-term interest rates, equity indexes and meats while the CBOT concentrated on long-term interest rates and grains. Obviously that is an argument that could not be made with a Nasdaq and NYSE hook-up.
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Tags: regulation, Too big to fail
Posted in Buy outs, Mergers, Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
Monday, April 25th, 2011
First, let’s be thankful it exists (the human spirit thing that is). Many of our greatest inventions and cures arose from a refusal to say “no.”
So why be worried when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) whacks a natural gas trader for $30 million based on a finding that he manipulated the price of natural gas futures (an activity assigned by Congress 40 years ago for policing EXCLUSIVELY by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) on the New York Mercantile Exchange (also supervised EXCLUSIVELY by the CFTC)? (more…)
Tags: CFTC, FERC, regulation
Posted in Regulatory/actions | No Comments »
