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South Africa begins to learn about the Sprott report on gold price manipulation
12:26a ET Friday, August 27, 2004
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
As you'll see by the Reuters dispatch appended here,
not only has the chief of staff for the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission just departed for a job
with the industry his commission is supposed to
regulate, but most of the commissionerships themselves
are vacant.
That is, in commodities trading regulation in the
United States, hardly anyone is home, and those who
ARE home are looking for favors from the people they're
regulating.
But there couldn't possibly be any price fixing in the
commodities exchanges under such an empty regime, could
there be?
Even so, this is surely another government agency that
won't be getting any phone calls from MineWeb's Tim Wood,
The Globe and Mail's Mathew Ingram, and other journalists
like them.
No, such journalists are like the inept police detective
played by Leslie Neilsen in the scene from the movie
"The Naked Gun" where he stands in front of an exploding
fireworks shop and, as colorful rockets shoot off into
the sky all around, scolds the gathering crowd: "Move
along, move along -- nothing to see here!"
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
CFTC Chief of State Departs for Industry Group
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6082649
By Ros Krasny
Reuters
Thursday, August 26, 2004
CHICAGO -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission
said on Thursday its chief of staff will quit to join
the Managed Funds Association, an industry group whose
members are regulated in part by the futures agency.
Scott Parsons, who leaves the CFTC on Aug. 30, will
become executive vice president for strategic and
government affairs at Washington-based MFA, which
represents hedge funds, managed futures and other
alternative investments.
On its Web site, MFA defines its role, in part, as "to
further constructive dialogue with the regulators in
pursuit of regulatory reform."
The CFTC is the federal agency that regulates futures
trading and protects participants against manipulation
and fraud.
Parsons will be involved in lobbying on legislative and
regulatory affairs and represent the association before
policy-makers, the group said in a press release.
CFTC spokesman David Gary said Parsons would be
unable to lobby the agency for a year after his departure.
Parsons' move extends a tradition of revolving doors
between the trade association and its regulator. CFTC
General Counsel Patrick McCarty served in a similar
role at MFA from 2000 until 2002. MFA President
John Gaine was the CFTC's general counsel from
1977 to 1981.
The MFA's 800 members manage a "significant portion"
of the estimated $1 trillion in investment vehicles,
such as hedge funds, the group said.
Parsons joined the CFTC in 1998 as policy adviser to
then-Commissioner James Newsome.
When Newsome was appointed CFTC chairman in 2001,
Parsons was appointed chief of staff and chief operating
officer, acting as a spokesman on all major commission
policies and overseeing a staff of more than 500.
"Parsons performed a variety of confidential assignments,
which required a detailed knowledge of the chairman's
personal views on issues facing the agency," the CFTC
said. He also consulted with the other CFTC
commissioners and presented Newsome's views on
aspects of the enforcement of the Commodity Exchange
Act and other CFTC regulations.
Parsons' departure comes weeks after his former boss
quit the CFTC to become president of the New York
Mercantile Exchange, the third-largest U.S. futures
mart.
Newsome's departure meant the ranks of CFTC
commissioners had dwindled from the usual five to just
two: Sharon Brown Hruska, now acting chairman, and
Walter Lukken, both Republicans.
The CFTC has lost other top regulators in the past year.
Michael Gorham, director of market oversight, left in July
to return to the Illinois Institute of Technology's Center
for Financial Markets in Chicago.
Jane Kang Thorpe, director of the division of clearing
and intermediary oversight, quit in November.
Some industry officials have worried that thin ranks at
the top of the CFTC have already slowed the wheels
of regulatory progress.
----------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------
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