Wednesday, January 20, 2010

CFTC: the Common Fraud Training Committee

If you ever write to someone, like me, to say that you disagree with them, you should at least be able to say why. I do, and I will. Here's an example: I think futures contracts are a form of fraud because there are more paper contracts than real silver, and I think "regulating" fraud is simply fraud on top of fraud.

So far, nobody has demonstrated any capacity to explain how new position limits on metals, even applied to short sellers, would end the endless short selling. Nobody has explained how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would be able to detect, and/or catch, and/or prevent an entity like JP Morgan from setting up many dummy shell corporations to short all the silver contracts that they wanted to avoid and get around any new regulation.

Therefore, my view is that new position limits contemplated by the CFTC would be irrelevant. CFTC regulation of short positions is impossible and a waste of time. What the CFTC has been capable of doing so far is to criminalize and outlaw "excessive" long positions, as if it's somehow criminal to spend your money on what you want. (more)

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