Congress owned by CFTC economist

C

Cutten

From Fortune:

"Do I think [Washington politicans] understand the role of futures markets - how they facilitate price discovery and the transference of risk?" asks former U.S. Commodities Futures Trade Commission chief economist Gerald Gay. "No, they're clueless - at least most of them."

Imagine if an army general said that about Congress's understanding of the military and foreign policy, or a senior surgeon in a government position said it about their understanding of healthcare, Medicaid etc.

IMO there need to be some kind of tests for elected politicians before they are allowed to legislate on any particular issue where objective facts are known. If they can't demonstrate basic understanding, they don't get to vote on it. Imagine an illiterate politician voting on a bill he can't even read, or someone who can't add up being put in charge of the finance committe. Well, it's just the same when you are talking about 99% of elected politicians debating economics and markets.
 
N.B. I would not really mind much if someone who *did* understand speculation still wanted to restrict it, and gave some reasons that made some coherent sense. For example if a Congressman was a communist or Georgist and thought that speculation was inherently immoral, and wanted to ban it for that reason - then as long as he knew the huge economic costs that would be imposed on producers and consumers of oil as a result, and thought that a price worth paying - well, I would disagree with him but I could at least respect his opinion.

But to be totally wrong about proven empirical facts, due to blind ignorance, and try to justify yourself on such mistaken assumptions? That really takes the cake. You know the other person is a retard when you would have more respect for a communist position than theirs.
 
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