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Between the lines: Don't blame speculators, they have a real job to do

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Published Date: 09 July 2008
By George Kerevan
YOU can always tell a serious economic crisis is in the works because there is a rush by the politicians to blame anonymous "speculators" for everything that is going wrong.
I'm old enough to remember when Harold Wilson denounced the "Gnomes of Zurich" (un-named Swiss bankers) for destabilising the pound. Lately, the speculators have been accused of sending the price of oil to unsustainable heights, starving the world's ...



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  • Last Updated: 08 July 2008 11:06 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: George Kerevan
 
1

Mallory,

Edinburgh 09/07/2008 10:01:32
George

Why has the price of rice risen so much? Its not used for biofuel.

Most punters are right to castigate speculators, spivs and bonus driven bankers placing bets with other people's money.

I'm old enough to remember Wislon's Gnomes outburst as well.

Plus ca change
2

Dragonlord,

09/07/2008 10:14:13
The recent credit crunch is being driven from the USofA. Unless the rest of the world goes into recesion,Ie high fuel costs and less borrowing, America dies and the world follows.
3

Neil,

Glasgow 09/07/2008 13:53:08
When the price of one staple food goes up people change staples & so their prices go up too. The World Bank said food price rise was 75% because of biofuels.

In the same way the ouil price rise would not have happened if most of our electricity was nuclear.

Both problems are caused by government.

Government gets to try to shift the blame because they have control of the media & speculators & spivs don't. This is rather a shame because it is easy to see which is more trustworthy.
4

Zardoz C.S.,

London 09/07/2008 21:50:09
Good article, but insider trading was mentioned and it wasn't clear whether the author finds it proper or improper.

It is proper and ought not to be illegal. Inside traders reveal information about a company that only a privileged few know. But by purchasing or selling on that information, the rest of the world gets to know about it. Keynsians always complain how the lack of perfect information is a failure of the market. Well insider trading improves the information access about the company. If management is going down the toilet, insiders selling their stock will get the information out instantly but only if they stand to gain from the sale by doing it before the news breaks. By making insider trading illegal, it delays the information getting to the market causing even more people to lose out by hanging onto poor stock.

 

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