More Than 130 Groups Call on CFTC to Shut Down 'Dystopian' Water Futures Market

[douglas9]

December 20, 2021

Warning Wall Street against commodifying what has been treated since ancient history as "a common right for everyone," more than 130 civil society groups on Monday demanded that federal regulators shut down the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's water futures market.

Food & Water Watch organized the petition, which was sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a year after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) opened the world's first market for water futures contracts, based on water rights in drought-plagued California.

Water index futures trades are contrary to the public interest as they involve the trade of an essential resource," wrote the groups, which also included Public Citizen, For Love of Water (FLOW), the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).

The organizations argued that the CME's water futures market—which the exchange self-certified before its launch, assuring the CFTC that it met the requirements of the commission's regulations—undermines California state law and violates the CFTC's own trading restrictions.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/20/more-130-groups-call-cftc-shut-down-dystopian-water-futures-market

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Hyenas and vultures circling wounded prey

[Irish_Dem]

2. Asking human predators to stop making money off of tragedy and death.

The request would be amusing if it were not so damn sad.