If it's a new year, it must be time to give the arsonists a book of matches, a can of gas, and another pile of our money to set on fire:
Two weeks ago . . . the SEC blessed a controversial fund designed by J.P. Morgan Chase that, for the first time, will let investors buy shares backed by physical, warehoused copper, to use as a form of investment.The change may seem arcane. But long-time participants in the copper market say the effects will be immediate: Manufacturers looking to make productive use of copper will find themselves competing with speculators backed by some of the richest banks and funds in the world, raising prices for many consumer products. The long-term result may be even more disturbing: The SEC's ruling all but invites bankers to increase speculation in other, even more essential goods, like grain and oil.
In practical terms, the SEC handed traders at J.P. Morgan control over 20 to 30 percent of the copper available for immediate delivery from the London Metals Exchange---the commercial market where companies that use copper go to procure last-minute supplies.
I'd expect this abusive and corrupt behavior from an SEC stocked with Teabilly political appointees, but we are now entering the fifth year of Team Democrat's control of the executive branch. The SEC has been an unmitigated disaster from Day 1 of the administration, and its sense of urgency to do anything to reform the agency has been about the same as its sense of urgency to do anything to prevent the recurrence of financial crimes: That is, they're more concerned with foaming some runways than ensuring us that the Masters of the Universe---you know, the same ones who've already plundered the citizenry for trillions of dollars in equity---don't consign us all eventually to living in mud-hut shantytowns. You'd have thought the administration might've had a change of heart about this state of affairs after the last election, but I guess when it comes to financial regulation, elections don't matter much anymore, now, do they. I suppose as a consequence that we could all complain to little avail, or perhaps as an alternative we could practice some conversational Spanish.
---Baron V
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