Moby Waller

Who's to Blame for the Commodities Boom?

I agree with the Author in that the Frankfurter quote is rather naive. The quote refers to the securitization of commodities and the trading of them as speculative financial instruments rather than for delivery of the physical good -- as if this was a new concept!

As far as I know, profiting from futures contracts without planning to take delivery has been happening as far back as Holland in the 1600s! Or look back the the 1970s when commodity/future trading was previously in vogue.

Blaming speculators and short sellers is always a silly strategy in a world with 2-sided markets and gigantic money flows.