John Stossel has an article regarding how those evil oil speculators of today are similar to those evil onion speculators of yesteryear. Onion futures trading was banned in 1958 and if you think the price volatility of oil or corn has been bad you should have a look at onions.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=43310Stossel is not the first to point this out. Here's a Fortune magazine article from 2008 which points out the same obvious facts.
...the volatility in onion prices makes the swings in oil and corn look tame, reinforcing academics' belief that futures trading diminishes extreme price swings. Since 2006, oil prices have risen 100%, and corn is up 300%. But onion prices soared 400% between October 2006 and April 2007, when weather reduced crops, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only to crash 96% by March 2008 on overproduction and then rebound 300% by this past April.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/27/news/economy/The_onion_conundrum_Birger.fortune/?postversion=2008062713I love this:
The volatility has been so extreme that the son of one of the original onion growers who lobbied Congress for the trading ban now thinks the onion market would operate more smoothly if a futures contract were in place.
It only took this family a single generation. ;)
Wine is sunlight, held together by water - Galileo Galilei
Un jour sans vin est comme un jour sans soleil - Louis Pasteur
Water separates the people of the world; wine unites them - anonymous
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world - Ernest Hemingway
Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance - Benjamin Franklin
