ATA to Call for Greater Federal Oversight to Limit Speculation
Arlington, Va. – Speaking on behalf of the American Trucking Associations, Con-way Inc. Vice President Randy Mullett will call on Congress to improve transparency in the over-the-counter markets and establish aggregate position limits across all trading platforms during a press conference tomorrow at 1 p.m. on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Mullett will also address the effects of excessive oil speculation on America’s trucking industry.
The press conference will be held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room G11.
In addition to Mullett, speakers at the press conference will include U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and the following representatives of the Derivatives Reform Alliance (DRA):
Michael Masters, Managing Member, Masters Capital Management LLC
Roger Johnson, President, National Farmers Union
Sean Cota, Cota & Cota, Inc., Bellows Falls, Vt.
Under current law, certain kinds of complex financial transactions and trading in vital energy and agricultural commodities take place with no transparency and without any federal oversight. These include the credit-default swaps on mortgage-backed securities that fueled the housing bubble, as well as speculative trading that helped create massive bubbles in a range of consumer goods, from gasoline, heating oil and natural gas to wheat, cotton and other commodities.
The DRA is composed of Members of the Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition and Americans for Financial Reform. These groups believe that inadequate federal oversight and excessive speculation contributed significantly to the financial crises and commodity bubbles of the previous decade, and believe that meaningful reform is essential in order to return stability, confidence and transparency to the futures/derivatives markets and the broader economy. Therefore, the coalitions urge federal lawmakers and regulators to consider much-needed reforms in the futures/derivatives markets.
The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.