“Our agency is doing something, but can’t tell you what”

Posted by Marc Hodak on May 30, 2008 under Politics | Comments are off for this article

Examination of a Witch, Thompkins H. Matteson, 1853

The government’s witch hunt for those behind the surge in oil prices continues. The CFTC, a regulatory agency, began its own investigation:

“The Commission is taking the extraordinary step of disclosing this investigation because of today’s unprecedented market conditions,” CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken said in the statement. The Washington-based regulator, which generally conducts inquiries on a confidential basis, didn’t say when the probe will end. The CFTC did not name any companies being targeted and said details of the investigation were confidential.

Translation: “We’re publicly announcing our investigation of the oil markets because this is the most effective way for us to communicate to Congress that we’re ‘doing something’. We can’t actually tell you anything about this investigation because it’s supposed to be confidential. Actually, it’s because we’ve got nothing, but can hide that fact by claiming confidentiality. Even though we’re talking to you in front of cameras and microphones. Confidential, you see.”

Of course, this new phase of the witch hunt won’t be costless:

The regulator will require traders to give monthly reports about their index-based trading and it plans further reviews of how these traders are classified, how they report their trading activity and how they behave, according to the statement.

Like that won’t have any effect on spreads.