Beef behaving badly

摘要

The US beef industry is being roiled by the worst market chaos since the US reported its first BSE case on Dec. 23, 2003. The chaos has nothing to do with an animal disease or food safety breakdown. The culprit is a futures market that has behaved irrationally for the past 18 months. Market participants and analysts agree the futures are not functioning as they should as a risk management or price discovery tool. Yet all are at a loss as to what to do.