The following post from The Barrel lists some of the activities the CFTC has been involved in this year. If you were to believe what Washington says regulators will save us because they will anticipate the mistakes and fraud that take place in the marketplace. What really happens is they are not any brighter than the rest of us and all the added regulations do is increase the cost in the prices paid and the taxes charged.
It may not have been historic, but 2011 was big for CFTC
By Brian Scheid The Barrel
It’s hard to say with a straight face that 2011 for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was truly historic.
The idea of historians a century from now breathlessly discussing the debate over the federal commodity position limits regime or a new market manipulation standard may seem downright absurd.
But the idea of future historians discussing anything the CFTC has done doesn’t seem as absurd this year as it did just a couple of years ago when the sleepy agency was just an afterthought, if it was thought of at all. …