5 ms·

NPR's Planet Money had an interesting episode a while back about the successful cornering of the US onion market in 1955-56. As a result, onion futures trading

NPR's Planet Money had an interesting episode a while back about the successful cornering of the US onion market in 1955-56. As a result, onion futures trading was banned, and still is today in the US. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episode-657-the-tale-of-the-onion-king http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episo...

sevenless 10y ago
Oddly, the same code prohibits dealing onion futures and movie ticket receipts: > 7 U.S. Code § 13–1 - Violations, prohibition against dealings in motion picture box office receipts or onion futures; punishment > No contract for the sale of motion picture box office receipts (or any index, measure, value, or data related to such receipts) or onions for future delivery shall be made on or subject to the rules of any board of trade in the United States. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/13-1 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/13-1
- 21 10y ago
  There was some talk a few years ago about trading futures on movie box-office returns, meaning betting if a future movie will be successful at box-office or not. This supposedly would have allowed movie studios to hedge in case of a potential dud. But it was forbidden for some reason. This might be related to that.
  - tedunangst 10y ago
    Hollywood accounting is notoriously cooked, such that even blockbusters "lose" money. A futures market would be a disaster. Maybe if restricted to actual ticket sales, but that still seems very easy to manipulate. What constitutes an "actual" ticket?
  - speeder 10y ago
    There is a movie I believe, about scammers trying to use futures market to have illegal profits by betting on failure of their theatrical piece, and then making a piece thqt praises Hitler, hoping it would bomb really hard.
    - arethuza 10y ago
      That'll be "The Producers": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1968_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1968_film)
InclinedPlane 10y ago
Interestingly, I learned that around the mid 20th century Britain didn't grow many onions locally, they just imported them, so there was a tremendous onion shortage during WWII. Here an article about it: http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/cooks/onions-at-war http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/cooks/onions-at-war

sevenless 10y ago

Oddly, the same code prohibits dealing onion futures and movie ticket receipts: > 7 U.S. Code § 13–1 - Violations, prohibition against dealings in motion picture box office receipts or onion futures; punishment > No contract for the sale of motion picture box office receipts (or any index, measure, value, or data related to such receipts) or onions for future delivery shall be made on or subject to the rules of any board of trade in the United States. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/13-1 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/7/13-1

21 10y ago
There was some talk a few years ago about trading futures on movie box-office returns, meaning betting if a future movie will be successful at box-office or not. This supposedly would have allowed movie studios to hedge in case of a potential dud. But it was forbidden for some reason. This might be related to that.
- tedunangst 10y ago
  Hollywood accounting is notoriously cooked, such that even blockbusters "lose" money. A futures market would be a disaster. Maybe if restricted to actual ticket sales, but that still seems very easy to manipulate. What constitutes an "actual" ticket?
- speeder 10y ago
  There is a movie I believe, about scammers trying to use futures market to have illegal profits by betting on failure of their theatrical piece, and then making a piece thqt praises Hitler, hoping it would bomb really hard.
  - arethuza 10y ago
    That'll be "The Producers": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1968_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1968_film)

InclinedPlane 10y ago

Interestingly, I learned that around the mid 20th century Britain didn't grow many onions locally, they just imported them, so there was a tremendous onion shortage during WWII. Here an article about it: http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/cooks/onions-at-war http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/cooks/onions-at-war