Professor Elam

India is quickly returning to its socialist roots.  Now India is considering banning futures trading in food products. This has already happened in rice and wheat. Okay budding capitalists, the prices are rising, so the logical result is

encourage more food production

ban trading in open markets where prices are there for everyone to see

All of you who took choice B are voting in favor of black markets, unofficial markets where prices and transactions are anything but transparent. The next worst thing would be for the government to decide it would set the price, that would really dry up supply.  We are getting closer to that with the Dems calling for expropriation of oil company profits. If that happens what will be the incentive for oil companies to find more oil? this sort of knee jerk short term reaction to news, especially in an election year is downright scary. The belief that prices and supply can simply be ordered brought us the wreck that became the Soviet Union and the entire Eastern Bloc of waiting lines and no supply.  It is one thing to have high prices, it is quite another to not have any supply.

A fund manager looks at how we got into this mess. It is always interesting to read analysis by someone who does not work for an investment firm or the govt, ie someone independent.