4 ms·
"and why that is the one type of future outlawed by congress" I was intrigued enough to follow this up, although I didn't listen to the podcast. From wikipedia
by andyjohnson0 11y ago
"and why that is the one type of future outlawed by congress"
I was intrigued enough to follow this up, although I didn't listen to the podcast. From wikipedia:
During the hearings, the Commodity Exchange Authority stated that it was the perishable nature of onion which made them vulnerable to price swings. Then-congressman Gerald Ford of Michigan sponsored a bill, known as the Onion Futures Act, which banned futures trading on onions. 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. The president of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, E.B. Harris, lobbied hard against the bill. Harris described it as "Burning down the barn to find a suspected rat". The measure was passed, however, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill in August 1958. [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga#Regulatory_action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Kosuga#Regulatory_acti...
- dclowd9901 11y agoAnd yet, crude, as a staple good, gets no such protections.
- ars 11y agoIt's not a protection, this law causes problems, it doesn't help anything.
- SixSigma 11y ago> since they were used as a condiment rather than a staple food such an unstaple food that The Times of India has a page dedicated to track the price of onions http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Onion-prices http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Onion-prices
- everlost 11y agoThis was probably in response to the onion crisis a few years back when onions were more expensive than gasoline http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Petrol-cheaper-than-onions-in-Goa/articleshow/21815006.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Petrol-cheaper-t...
- SCdF 11y agoYeah calling onion a condiment is pretty crazy, Onion is the basis of a huge amount of cuisine.
- briandear 11y agoNot in America in the 1950s.
- strictnein 11y agoMy first snarky response was: "Do they also track beef prices?" But yes, they do (sort of): http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Beef-prices http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Beef-prices But then I wondered if those pages were auto-generated, so I tried other things: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Taco-prices http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Taco-prices Ok, how about non-food: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Obama-prices http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Obama-prices Yeah, it's kind of free form: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Why-Am-I-A-Pickle http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Why-Am-I-A-Pickle The first time you specify something unique, it takes a little bit to load, but then it's caching it.
- SixSigma 11y agoI found it by searching Google. I think the articles it lists illustrate my wider point that onion prices are a concern to multi-billions of people.