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The bigger question behind 'regulatory capture' at the CFTC
1:05p ET Friday, May 7, 2021
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics notes on YouTube this week that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has named a Goldman Sachs commodity trading official, Alicia Crighton, as co-chair of a committee advising the commission about the commodity markets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofX9HvBzXCc
Of course this isn't exactly surprising, since regulatory agencies legitimately need advice and expertise from the interests they regulate, just as legislators need advice and expertise from industries and interests affected by legislation and obtain that advice and expertise through industry lobbyists. That's democracy.
It's also not exactly surprising that the CFTC would rely so heavily on Goldman Sachs, since for many years the main theme of business regulation in the United States has been what is called "regulatory capture" -- the domination of regulatory agencies by the interests being regulated, to the exclusion of the public interest.
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Still, the CFTC easily could get advice and expertise from the commodity trading industry without putting industry people directly in charge of commission committees. The implication of such appointments is that "regulatory capture" is complete with the commission.
You'll know this has changed when, for example, the CFTC appoints silver market rigging investigator Ted Butler as co-chairman of a commission committee on transparency in the monetary metals markets, instead of simply brushing off Butler's specific and detailed questions, as the commission did this week:
https://silverseek.com/article/cftcs-response
In any case, all of the above is a bit beside the essence of the manipulation of the monetary metals markets.
All explanations of that manipulation lie behind the question the CFTC long has refused to answer for GATA and for U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia.
That is:
Does the commission have jurisdiction over manipulative trading undertaken by, at the behest of, or with the approval of the U.S. government, or is such manipulation authorized by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, as amended since then, and other legislation and executive orders?
See:
The architecture for manipulative and surreptitious futures market trading masterminded by the U.S. government long has been in plain view, just not widely understood, because mainstream financial news organizations and market analysts won't reporr it. Its components are:
-- The U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund, which is authorized by U.S. law to manipulate and rig not only all markets in the United States but all markets in the world, quite without the approval of the foreign governments with direct responsibility for those markets:
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/international/exchange-stabiliza...
-- The Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, which functions as a broker for its member central banks, whose admitted purposes include "the provision of international credits and joint efforts to influence asset prices (especially gold and foreign exchange) in circumstances where this might be thought useful," and which even advertises that secret interventions in the gold and currency markets are among its services to member central banks:
https://www.gata.org/node/4279
https://www.gata.org/node/11012
-- The Central Bank Incentive Program maintained by the CME Group, operator of the major U.S. futures exchanges, which offers governments and central banks volume trading discounts for secretly trading all U.S. futures contracts through exchange-approved brokers:
https://www.gata.org/node/18925
So probably the most effective aid any U.S. residents investing in the monetary metals could provide to the liberation of those markets -- and the liberation of markets generally around the world -- would be to ask their members of Congress to press the CFTC for an answer to this central question.
Of course the commission's repeated refusal to answer the question is almost as good as an answer. But only a formal answer might induce mainstream financial news organizations and market analysts to attempt some ordinary journalism about it, thereby alerting the world to stop being cheated of free markets.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
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