The line between trading and manipulation

Ah, the publicity that comes from an IPO...

This is OK and unsurprising...
Glencore made a speculative bet on rising wheat and corn prices in the early stages of last summer’s Russian drought, the world’s largest commodity trader has revealed ahead of its initial public offering that will value the company at $60bn.
... but this is pretty sketchy:
As it bet on rising prices, senior traders at the Swiss-based company publicly urged Russia to impose a grain export ban... On August 3, Yury Ognev, head of Glencore’s Russian grain unit, encouraged Moscow to ban wheat exports, saying: “From our point of view the government has all the reasons to stop all exports.” His deputy made similar comments. At the time Glencore distanced itself from the comments, saying they represented Mr Ognev’s personal views. Russia imposed the ban on August 5, sending the price of the cereal more than 15 per cent higher in two days.
As longtime readers know, I generally believe and document that speculation in commodity markets does more good than ill, but this type of lobbying for trade-reducing, volatility and uncertainty-enhancing measures makes me very uncomfortable, and will never be popular.

2 comments:

  1. As usual, its not the speculation that causes the problems, but rather an unholy alliance between state and private sector, that is the result of lobbying.

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  2. Interesting perspective - what are other examples of that general pattern?

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