The G-20's Opportunity on Speculation

A new global poll finds that 70 percent of people across 24 countries believe that "major changes" are required to the way the global economy is run. A good place to start is the G-20 meeting scheduled to begin this week.

While greater regulation of financial markets is on the agenda, conspicuously absent are commodity exchanges. Last year, IATP published a report documenting the role of the excess speculation on commodity exchanges in the global food crisis. Last week, IATP and more than 180 organizations from around the world sent President Obama and congressional leaders a letter calling for greater regulation of commodity markets.

In a new commentary, IATP's Steve Suppan makes the case that the G-20 should include tougher  regulation of commodity exchanges on their agenda, because of the broad influence commodity exchanges have over food and gas prices around the world. The G-20 should get the ball rolling, but Steve writes that ultimately, a global approach to regulating commodity exchanges needs to come through the G-192 at the United Nations.