Nothing gets politicians’ backs up more about the financial markets than when they’re perceived to be holding the "man on the street" to ransom. This summer’s spike in wheat and corn prices, and the resulting fear that there might be a repeat of the 2007/08 global food crises, has European financial regulators in a combative tizzy.
Last month EU internal market commissioner Michel Barnier – himself a former French agriculture minister – announced that the European Commission intended to introduce more stringent oversight of the commodity derivatives markets (see Barnier warns markets off reg arbitrage), with a particular focus on agricultural contracts.
The EU agriculture commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, told delegates at a Mifid conference in Brussels last month that European...
