Campaigners will use hundreds of pots and pans to spell out ‘Stop food speculation’ in giant letters on the Place de Luxembourg in Brussels on Wednesday 26 September. The 925 pots and pans used will represent the 925 million people facing hunger worldwide. The protest comes on the day of a key vote by MEPs […]
Author Archives: MFW
24
Aug
Aug
Steve Johnson is rather sceptic in the Financial Times (August 19) on the evidence that speculative investment pushes up prices beyond the level that intrinsic supply and demand would dictate. interesestingly, he does propose that a precautionary should be applied. He writes: ‘if speculation does push up spot prices then people die. If it doesn’t, […]
24
Aug
Aug
“Food prices are increasing, partly due to drought in the US and biofuel production, but we fear that speculation will drive prices even higher,” says Anne Van Schaik, accountable finance campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe. “If we do not take any action right now, we may very well face another food crisis really […]
31
Jul
Jul
Abstract Recent droughts in the midwestern United States threaten to cause global catastrophe driven by a speculator amplified food price bubble. Here we show the effect of speculators on food prices using a validated quantitative model that accurately describes historical food prices. During the last six years, high and fluctuating food prices have lead to […]
09
Jul
Jul
This is a short animation to explain the link
between agricultural commodity derivatives speculation and the rise of prices (energy, food, etc).
For a fuller analysis, see Finance Watch’s recent position paper on MiFID II, “Investing not betting”.
07
May
May
Markus Ferber, the MEP leading the European Parliament’s work on financial markets reform has today published proposals which would go some way to putting the hunger of people before the hunger of financial institutions. The proposals come in the form of a draft report on the European Commission’s proposed changes to the ‘Markets in Financial […]
07
May
May
World Development Movement, 23 April 2012 Ahead of deliberations by MEPs on Wednesday, 25 campaign groups from across Europe today released a statement (PDF) urging the EU to use the review of its Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) to curb financial speculation on food prices. The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) will meet […]
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