Malkiel

Who's to Blame for the Commodities Boom?

Governments have an inherent interest in making sure that the essential commodities--food and fuel--are not being subject to artificial price inflation. It's a legitimate question to ask whether the new generation of investment products such as ETF's which allow retail investors low-risk access to commodities is having any unwanted effect upon pricing of essential commodities; I find it amusing, however, that toro keeps wringing his hands about gold, since that commodity has absolutely no industrial or economic function and serves as a perfect sponge for those retail commodity dollars to keep them away from the really valuable stuff, like corn. Go ahead, buy all the GLD you want, there's no danger of mankind being "crucified on a cross of gold" any more...