[ExI] Bad news for US customers of Intrade

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes

>...The specific regulation - Dodd-Frank - was also intended to curb the
effect of speculation on commodity prices, for instance after oil
speculators kept getting $billions by such market manipulation, which costs
were largely passed on by oil companies in the form of, e.g., higher gas
prices.
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OK so let us ignore for the moment the propriety of governments interfering
in oil speculation, and apply the logic to their control of gold prices.
Speculators are driving up the price of gold.  Are we to assume this is a
bad thing?  Why?  It seems to me like it is a good thing if the price of
gold is speculated way up, for the amount of gold is what it is.  If its
price is artificially sent way up, then we create money.  Perhaps
governments want to keep that capability to themselves.  But governments
hold huge reserves of gold, so they would benefit from speculators driving
up the price.

I see this as an unintended consequence of regulations like Dodd-Frank.  I
don't see how it is legitimate for any government to restrict its citizens
from betting on the future price of an element, or any other natural
resource.  If gold, why not silver?  And platinum?  Aluminum?  Iron?

Back to oil speculation, if speculators were sending the price of oil
upward, I see this as mostly a positive thing: higher oil prices encourage
the market to invest in oil alternative technologies, which even if not
currently profitable, are at least interesting from an engineering point of
view.  Furthermore the higher oil prices have environmental and safety
benefits: it encourages people to buy smaller and lighter cars, which
reduces emissions and reduces the risk to me if the drunken proles collide
with Mister Lincoln.  It reduces the traffic on the roads as well.  

If speculators are able to make a ton of money on oil, then it concentrates
money into fewer hands, which also has its benefits: they invest that money
into stuff that changes the world for the better, creates jobs and so forth.

Regarding InTrade, that form of speculation does not influence the price of
any commodity.  It is a zero sum game, where speculators play against each
other.  I see no harm in this, but I see harm in the government deciding it
has the authority to control it.

spike