Disruptions of the Futures Market: A Comment on Dealing with Market Manipulation

Abstract

In his article, "The Manipulation of Commodity Futures Prices-The Unprosecutable Crime," Jerry Markham examines the history of futures market manipulation as a regulatory problem and sets forth a number of suggestions to improve the policing of this unwanted activity. He rightly observes that market "corners" and "squeezes" have occurred throughout the long and colorful history of the commodity futures markets, whether in the form of raw and defiant exercises in financial power, or as a less spectacular form of market opportunism. He also notes correctly that the seventy-year effort by the federal government to eliminate these market manipulations has been more or less unsuccessful.