Daily Archives: 17 July 2015

More Government Interference

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is suing BP (of Gulf oil spill fame) for allegedly manipulating Texas energy markets seven years ago. There are two rationales for the case: one is the $48 million fine FERC hopes to collect on trades that produced the magnificent profit of $250 thousand—because, hey we want the money.

The other reason is the government’s use of the Panic of 2008 that began shortly thereafter as a handy excuse for increasing government regulation, ostensibly for “transparency” [emphasis added]

The case represents one facet of a broader push toward greater oversight of physical and financial commodities markets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and scandals like the 2001 collapse of Enron Corp. The raft of new regulations brought in to increase transparency and prevent market abuse has turned up the pressure on commodities traders, including BP, one of the world’s largest traders of oil and gas. Several Wall Street banks have abandoned or significantly reduced their commodity-trading activities as a result of the increased oversight.

What’s the value of transparency regulation when it destroys the very thing government claims it wants us to be able to watch?

Another Misunderstanding

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Paul De Grauwe, John Paulson Professor in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, was quoted in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal as saying

They in fact triggered the banking crisis. They’ve failed in their duty to ensure financial stability.

De Grauwe was asserting that the ECB’s decision to not increase the amount the central bank already had loaned to Greek banks for liquidity purposes was a mistake.

This criticism is nonsense. The ECB triggered no crisis; the Greek crisis already was in full swing, and had been for a number of years and two bailouts wasted by Greek profligacy. The ECB simply said, rightly, that enough was enough. Far from “ensuring financial stability,” the ECB protected their constituent members by ceasing to pour more of their money into a bottomless dry well. Financial stability was, and is, solely in Greek hands to achieve.

OPM is not methadone for the addicted. It’s a hand up for those trying to recover from bad luck and those willing to learn from their mistakes and do better.