You Have to Wonder

Ran across this story this morning, and there are one or two comments here that are real jaw-drop material.

It seems Sen. Bernie Sanders, bless his heart, leaked some "confidential" information to the press. The information revealed the positions taken by traders in the speculation-driven rise in oil prices in 2008. Now, we know what happens when traders have an interest in prices of the commodities they're trading, don't we? Well, it seems that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been sitting on this. But here's the first jaw-drop item:

The leaked information has sparked concern at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is legally prohibited from releasing confidential information that identifies trader positions and identities.

Got that? The CFTC is not allowed to reveal information that might indicate conflicts of interest on the part of traders. It's against the law for them to do that. Any guesses on who wrote that choice bit of legislation? Here's a hint:

Republicans have already raised concerns in recent hearings about the Treasury's new Office of Financial Research created by Dodd-Frank, and whether its collection of data from hedge funds and banks may constitute a regulatory overreach.

"Regulatory overreach" is Republican-speak for "regulation of any sort."

Here's the second jaw-drop goody:

"This type of incident will have a chilling effect on derivatives trading in the U.S. because market participants will be reluctant to take the risk that their positions will be exposed to the public-and their competitors," John Damgard, president of the Futures Industry Association, said in a statement sent to Reuters.

This is really instructive. First, do you suppose this guy was actually listening to what he was saying? If "market participants" run the risk of people finding out what they're up to, maybe they won't be so eager to do it. Damgard seems to think this is terrible. Any sane person would be thinking "Isn't this what we want?" And second, notice how the "competitors" bit is an add-on. What he's really worried about is the public finding out what's going on -- and maybe forcing the regulators to do their jobs.

Now, do we think anything will happen because of this? Not anything we want to happen, that's for damned sure.