The Big Picture on the "Stop Excessive Speculation Act"

I've always been a doubter that speculation is responsible for much of the run up in oil prices, but I wholeheartedly the proposed "Stop Excessive Speculation Act", which would crack down on speculators by allowing the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) to regulate futures market and, "differentiate between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" hedge trading".

The reason that I support this is because it is a real sea change. It is a refutation of the myth that completely unsupervised markets self-regulate to the benefit of society.

It is the arbitrage and exotic financial vehicles that have been created in the past nearly three decades of free market fundamentalism, frequently lauded by Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan, which are at the core of our current credit crunch.

The markets have devolved into complex self-serving insider deals that have harmed everyone.

I think that this bill is a baby step, but it's a step in the right direction.