The blame game

In the first of two articles on the effect of speculative traders on energy prices, Tom Matthews of Kinder Morgan argues that speculators do not cause price volatility and outlines research he has done on the subject

Since US futures markets began trading more than 150 years ago, many have argued that large speculators distort market prices at the expense of legitimate businesses and the public welfare. However, contrary to some political statements, certain academic research and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data (see box) has shown that speculative trading in commodity futures does not increase market volatility and may actually reduce it.

President Franklin Roosevelt, in a 1934 speech to

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