Theforexfeed. Leaked Documents Reveal Major Speculators Behind 2008 Oil Price Shock: Hedge Funds, Koch, Big Banks, Oil Companies. By Lee Fang on September 15, 2011 at 11:30 am "Leaked Documents Reveal Major Speculators Behind 2008 Oil Price Shock: Hedge Funds, Koch, Big Banks, Oil Companies" Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leaked confidential data about oil speculation to a number of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal. Ordinarily, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulatory body that oversees futures trading, does not provide identities of speculators to the public. However, the data leaked by Sanders provides a rare snapshot into the trading volumes by major speculators right before the oil price spike in the summer of 2008.
As experts from Stanford University, Rice University, the University of Massachusetts, and authorities have concluded, rampant oil speculation was the prime driver of the record high prices for crude oil three years ago. To view a copy of the data, click here for documents leaked by Sanders. UPDATE 6-Oil up over $115 boosted by central bank action. Dearth of financial institutions to accommodate rural surplus funds. Wall Street's Secret Oil Games. Financial speculators responsible for rising global food prices, claims report | Global development. The activity of financial speculators is overwhelming agricultural commodities markets, fuelling global food price inflation and hunger, according to new analysis from the anti-poverty group the World Development Movement (WDM).
Its report, Broken Markets, published on Tuesday, finds that financial speculators with no interest in the physical goods traded now dominate agricultural commodity markets. WDM's report coincides with news that food inflation in the UK was running at 6.2% (pdf) in August. Annual inflation on bread and cereals was even higher, at 7.1%, compared to headline inflation of 4.5%, according to figures just released by the Office for National Statistics. WDM says the spiralling food prices are being driven by financial players taking over commodities markets. Those on low wages in the UK and the poorest in developing countries are hit hardest, since they spend a larger proportion of their income on food.
How Wall Street Fuels Global Hunger. Women plant sweet potatoes between cassava in Tanzania.Murkas/Flickr Wall Street loves food—and I'm not talking about expense-account dinners at Manhattan's culinary temples. When the the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, investment cash began to trickle into an area that had for decades seemed stodgy and boring: food commodities like corn, soy, and rice. And after the housing market started to unravel in 2006-'07, that trickle turned into a gusher. According to the UN FAO's most recent report, global food prices are hovering at all-time highs, and have risen dramatically over the past year. The FAO's Cereal Price Index is up 36 percent from last year; overall food prices are up 26 percent.
To hear Wall Street tell it, the bull market for food reflects the fundamentals of supply and demand. That's the story, anyway, and Wall Street is sticking to it. Graph: FAO Here's how de Schutter describes the situation: On just how massive a scale?