Regulators Considering Tighter Oil-Market Rules
U.S. and European regulators are considering stricter rules on speculation in oil markets due to concerns that sharp rises in fuel prices could worsen the global recession, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
In the U.S., the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is considering tougher oil-markets regulation, the Journal said in a front-page story.
The CFTC will consider energy markets regulation at hearings this month and plans to review exemptions that have allowed financial firms Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley to build multibillion-dollar ventures in energy speculation, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in an opinion piece submitted to the Journal jointly by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the two leaders wrote that oil prices were “dangerously volatile” and defying “the accepted rules of economics,” the paper said.
American Trucking Associations late last month called on Congress to increase the transparency of commodities markets in an effort to stem the price spikes and record high oil prices of last summer.
“It seems that more is at play than just the fundamentals of supply and demand,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a June 22 statement.
