FTC oil market rule will restrict market activity

摘要

The US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) rule prohibiting oil-market manipulation culminates a witch hunt in a land of no witches. It manages to be silly and dangerous at the same time-silly because it bans non-existent behavior and dangerous because it subjects honest business people to whimsical enforcement. Lawmakers and regulators ceremoniously launch investigations whenever oil prices stirred political passions. Oil changes hands in the most aggressively monitored market in the US. The new rule plays to the political exploitation of American suspicion repeatedly shown by FTC and other investigatory agencies to be unfounded.