Who Sank the Boat?


In a robust critique of a recent paper by the public interest group Finance Watch (“Investing Not Betting: Making Financial Markets Serve Society,” April 2012), EDHEC-Risk Institute has taken issue with a number of positions that this paper deems to be self-evident, e.g. that speculators must have a minority role in futures markets; that excessive speculation undermines the commodity price formation mechanism; and that there should be a linear relationship between a commodity’s supply-and-demand data and its price.




Who Sank the Boat?
Drawing on the theoretical and empirical evidence in the academic literature, the EDHEC-Risk Institute position paper, entitled “Who Sank the Boat?” (in reference to the difficulty in apportioning causality for commodity price spikes), shows that the above assertions are simply wrong.

According to the author of the EDHEC-Risk paper, Hilary Till, “modern commodity futures markets are the result of 160 years of trial-and-error efforts. One result has been the creation of an effective price discovery process, which in turn assists in the coordination of individual efforts globally in dynamically matching current production decisions with future consumption needs in commodities.

“Before performing surgery on these institutions, we suggest that Finance Watch’s supporters tread carefully and not adopt “speculative” regulatory proposals whose ultimate effects are unknown. We further recommend that European Union policymakers instead consider studying market practices globally and then adopt what is demonstrably best practice, rather than invent new untested regulations.”

While agreeing that Finance Watch’s concern with food and oil price spikes is fully justified, EDHEC-Risk Institute is concerned that Finance Watch’s proposals in restricting speculation fall somewhere in the continuum of being a placebo to actually being harmful to the goals to which they aspire.

A copy of the position paper “Who Sank the Boat?” can be downloaded via the following link:
http://docs.edhec-risk.com/mrk/000000/Who_Sank_the_Boat.pdf

Thursday, June 28th 2012
Rate it




New comment:
Twitter
B i u  QUOTE  URL

ENGLISH
Articles & press releases are provided as is and have not been edited or checked for accuracy.
Any queries should be directed to the company issuing the press release or to the author issuing the article.
If you have a question for the author, or would like to comment on this article, use the box above. Your comment will be moderated before publication.
Your comment or question will appear below and the author or Finyear editor will be able to respond. Please note that your name will appear next to your comment (not your email).
Finyear does not offer financial advice of any kind and the opinions of authors are not necessarily those of Finyear.
By posting your comment, you agree to our acceptable use policy. If you read anything here that you consider inappropriate or offensive, please contact the adress : contact (at) finyear.com
Finyear: Daily News & Best Practices for the Finance Executives (CFO, Treasurer, Controller, Credit manager, accountant, financial executive, etc...).

The Financial Year by Finyear. Copyright Finyear 2007-2013. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from Finyear.com and redistribute by email or post to the web without permission: contact (at) finyear.com

FRANCAIS
Les articles et les communiqués de presse sont fournis tels quels et n'ont pas été modifiés ou vérifiés.
Toute demande de renseignement doit être adressée à la société émettrice du communiqué de presse ou à l'auteur de l'article.
Si vous avez une question pour l'auteur, ou si vous désirez commenter cet article, utilisez la boîte ci-dessus. Votre commentaire sera modéré avant publication.
Votre commentaire ou question ci-dessous apparaîtra et l'auteur ou l'éditeur Finyear sera en mesure de répondre.
Veuillez noter, s'il vous plaît, que votre nom apparaîtra à côté de votre commentaire (pas votre adresse email).
Finyear n'offre pas de conseils financiers de quelque nature que ce soit et les opinions des auteurs ne sont pas nécessairement celles de Finyear.
En postant votre commentaire, vous acceptez notre politique d'utilisation et nos mentions légales.
Si vous lisez quelque chose ici que vous considérez inapproprié ou offensant, s'il vous plaît contacter l'adresse: contact (at) finyear.com
Finyear: actus quotidiennes et meilleures pratiques pour les cadres financiers (CFO, trésorier, contrôleur, gestionnaire de crédit, comptable, cadre financier, etc ..).

The Financial Year by Finyear. Copyright Finyear 2007-2013. Vous devez utiliser nos outils de partage situés sur les articles.
SVP ne coupez-pas les articles issus de Finyear.com, ne les reroutez-pas par message sur le web sans autorisation : contact (at) finyear.com

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way. - Henry Miller, The Wisdom of the Heart

Finyear Magazine


Finyear Research


Conferences & Webinars


White Papers / Livres blancs





Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31