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as an indian, this bit was particularly fascinating: > The bill was unpopular among traders, some of whom argued that onion shortages were not a crucial issue since they were used as a condiment rather than a staple food. in india, onions are so vital a staple that the onion price is a major economic index. see https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/commodities/new... for instance.
Planet Money podcast a covered this topic a few months ago: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/epis...
Such a good episode! Planet Money is so good that I've worked my way through 10 years of back-episodes over the last year or so, it's one of few podcasts which is worth doing that.
The other notorious carve-out is box office futures. Read more about the ban here: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/11/15/18091620/box-off...
as an indian, this bit was particularly fascinating: > The bill was unpopular among traders, some of whom argued that onion shortages were not a crucial issue since they were used as a condiment rather than a staple food. in india, onions are so vital a staple that the onion price is a major economic index. see https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/commodities/new... for instance.
Onions are pretty fundamental to Western cooking as well, but they're not a staple in the sense that people will starve if they're unavailable, the way potatoes or wheat are.
Laws should have an expiration date. Otherwise in 100 years there will be 1 million laws.
Perhaps a 'review' date would be more practical!
"In the 2000s (decade), onion prices were significantly more volatile than corn or oil prices. This volatility led the son of a farmer who initially lobbied for the ban to advocate a return to onion futures trading." This is the important part -- ag futures are insurance for farmers. You don't have to get it, but it limits your downside when you do, which is extremely important in low-margin, capital-intensive indust…
You can squeeze repeals like these into Budget Appropriation Acts to avoid government shutdowns If you want. Better and faster than the popular vote for different representatives, you dont even have to be registered anywhere. The US Federal Government doesnt have single item veto, and Congress wont care to revisit this even if they noticed later.
So I already knew about this from before, but one thing I never understood was instead of banning it outright, why not just put in a rule that says your futures are invalid if you control X percent of the underlying asset?
In many ways, it's easier enforcement-wise to just ban the thing, especially if you don't think it's actually important to have in the first place.
Laws should have an expiration date. Otherwise in 100 years there will be 1 million laws.
That'd open up an interesting industry where people would be trawling expiring laws looking to exploit them for economic gain. Perhaps a 'review' date would be more practical!
Planet Money podcast a covered this topic a few months ago: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/epis...