Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I would support the Feinstein amendment No. 4113 to close the London loophole. Senator Feinstein and I and other colleagues have been working together for years to put a cop back on the beat in U.S. commodity markets, and it is a pleasure to be here today at the verge of Senate approval of a bill that has so many strong disclosure and regulatory provisions for commodity markets. The prices paid for energy commodities like oil, natural gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel, not to mention food commodities like wheat, corn and soybeans have a profound impact on our economy, our markets, and our way of life. They matter to consumers, business, and governments. For too long, our commodity markets have been out of control, with undisclosed trades in unregulated markets, wildly gyrating prices unconnected to market forces, and unconscionable profits for commodity traders operating outside the real economy. This bill will go a long way toward rectifying those problems, and I commend Senators Dodd, Reed, Lincoln, and so many others for their hard work. The amendment introduced by Senator Feinstein focuses on an area that has long concerned me and other observers of the commodity markets--the way that commodity traders living right here in the United States are using terminals located here to trade U.S. produced goods on foreign markets outside of U.S. regulatory control. I am talking, for example, about U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil traded on the ICE exchange in London.…”