Shop Goldman Sachs to the regulator

I wrote to Andrew Robathan MP

I wrote to Andrew Robathan MP my local MP (south Leicestershire) using the template provided by WDM with some additional comments from myself. In the past I have had positive responses from Andrew but on this occasion he replied by saying "I think it would be of more use were you to write to the Chancellor yourself. I am afraid he would just see this from me as special pleasding, so migh I suggest you write to him at HM Treasury...". I am not sure what to make of this - perhaps now he is in government he will be more cautious in his responses - but I will be writing direct to the Chancellor as he suggests.

I rang on 22nd July and spoke

I rang on 22nd July and spoke to Andrea, who was sympathetic and listened to my points. She agreed that there has been a lot of concern over the issue but said the FSA can't demand the Government give them powers to regulate food speculation. I said I would take it up with my MP which she agreed would be the way forward.

Spoke to FSA today at 14.00 I

Spoke to FSA today at 14.00 I was asked to wait while the lady brought up a response that was obviously on a screen. I asked for an email of the blurb, which I was told was not possible. (I should of asked for a letter) I was told my call would be logged.

I spoke to a young woman at

I spoke to a young woman at FSA and asked what if anything they would be doing to encourage the UK Government to regulate against speculation in food, citing the impact on prices and the fact that the EU and US govts were considering action. She insisted that FSA could only apply Regulations when in existence. I suggested that they must also have an advisory role. She suggested that the proper course of action was to lobby my MP. I have taken her advice and written to Norman Baker MP.

I spoke to a young woman in

I spoke to a young woman in the FSA. She sounded as if she was reading from a brief which by now, Wednesday, had been prepared to answer calls like mine. She said that the FSA can intervene only if banks behave inappropriately. I asked if it would be inappropriate to bet on the price of food in a way which pushed it up for the poorest countries and quoted the Ethiopia 2006 to 2008 figures. She agreed it would be but said they could act only in accordance with regulations. I asked if they would discuss the problem with Ministers and ask for regulation. She said they were going to speak to Ministers about the calls. Robert Harvey Welwyn Hatfield WDM

Write to your MP

Thank you very much to all of you who have phoned the FSA. If you have a few more minutes to spare, why not also write to your MP? You can find details on what to say and how to do it here: http://www.wdm.org.uk/stop-bankers-betting-food-and-causing-hunger/ask-your-mp-support-regulation-food-speculation

called the fsa, now going to write to my MP

Neil and I from the FSA just had a lovely chat. the FSA do regulate the banks to ensure financial stability, and he was saying that they do regulate speculation on currencies but not on commodities. And suggested we all lobby our MPs which is what i am going to do now using the template letter thing above but i think you could email your MP too..

FSA call

I've just phoned the FSA and had a brief conversation with a pleasant -voiced young lady. She asked for all my correspondence details before opening the talk, which I gave her.I expressed forcibly and courteously my concerns over the financial speculations of such banks such as Goldman Sachs,which makes billions of pounds for them while ignoring the fact that thousands of the poorest people in the developing world suffer starvation through the wild fluctuation in the prices of basic commodities.I asked the young lady if the FSA could stop the banks doing such operations. She said the it was not the remit to control the banks.She said that the FSA had to work to strict guidlines.,Only the government could tell the banks what to do.I asked if the FSA would please put this request to the government. She replied it could not. She suggested I should lobby my local MP on this issue.She also gave me a detailed account of the duties of the FSA.

Phone call to FSA

The woman I spoke to also said that they had received lots of calls in the last few days regarding this topic, but reiterated that it is not within their remit to regulate commodity speculation. As with everyone else it seems, she said that any change in the scope of their powers would have to come through an act of parliament and she suggested writing to my MP. I wonder if there is any value in continuing this action for the rest of the week if they clearly cannot do anything as things currently stand? Perhaps there is some mileage in it in terms of media coverage, but might there also be a risk of it backfiring? Would it be better to change the target of the action?

Speculation in food prices

I spoke to a jack ?Donachie, (from Estonia); a lot of calls had been received about this and he had in fact been discussing this with his mother yesterday evening. Stated that the FSA had to have authority from the government to be able to act in any way and suggested that I write to my MP. Good, convincing answer from some one who sounded as if he agreed with us. The points from the numerous calls had been passed on to the directors.

Phoned FSA

I phoned FSA at about 16:00 on Monday and spoke to a young woman. I said I was following up a letter on commodity speculation which I wrote to Lord Turner in March. I said I recognised that the FSA was being wound up, a foolish, ideological action in my judgement, but wanted to know what they were doing about speculation. She said it was something they didn't know about but a group was looking at it. I asked if she had any inkling about when their powers were to be transferred but she had no idea. I then aksed if she could advise whther I should write to Osborne or Vince Cable since there appeared to be a regulatory vacuum. She said she didn't know either of them!! At which point I decided there was nothing more to be gleaned from this source.

Great Food Lottery call to FSA

A lady called Shireen/Cherie thanked me for my call and asked for my details. I gave my name and address but not our tel or email and then she then listened to my concerns about food speculation. She completely agreed that it was wrong and symathised with my concerns but made it clear that the FSA was not responsible for regulating the food markets. It was not their job. She said they had had a lot of calls on this topic. I replied that I was asking FSA to request the government to give them this power to stop speculation in food causing wild fluctuations and rises in the prices of basic food stuffs. She repeated the FSA was not a pricing regulator but they were looking into this closely. We politely thanked each other and said goodbye.

Call to FSA re food speculation

Like everyone else, I got a polite response, was read the briefing staff have received from FSA Head Office on what they can and can't do, and advised to write to my MP. I was told all such calls (of which they have had a good few) are logged, and will be reviewed by Head Office to see if there is further action they can take. Now to contact my M.P. - and maybe Goldman Sachs themselves.

FSA

a very pleasant young woman listened to my concerns and responded sympathetically, explaining that the FSA has no remit to regulate the banks regarding food speculation, only commodities. An act of parliament would be needed, and she advised taking this to my MP. I said that I certainly would be, but also requested that the FSA asked parliament about this scandalous area of speculation.

Rice and speculation

Hi @Anna Taylor and @Tim Worstall Thanks for your questions in relation to rice and speculation. As our report 'the great hunger lottery' (http://bit.ly/aSJlFW) explains wheat, maize and rice (the three great food staples) are intricately connected to each other. If someone starts eating less of one of these staples (because the price has increased) it is likely that they will start eating more of one the others. Whilst it is correct that rice isn't speculated on, wheat and maize are. However, if there is a large increase in the price of wheat and maize their will be an increase in demand for the cheaper rice, this will push up the price. If you look at the graph on page 23 of the report you'll see that wheat prices rose significantly followed by maize just before rice. The huge rice spike is the result key exporters implementing rice export bans to protect their populations from rising food prices. Statistical analysis by the FAO and research by the World Bank backs up that the rice price spike was caused by the high wheat prices. Which in turn was caused by speculation

call to the FSA

The lady who answered my call said the FSA was not in a position to petition the Government for additional regulatory powers. It is a body set up by the government who decides on it's remit. That means its down to us to petition the government through our MP's, etc, to get the FSA the powers it needs to tackle firms engaging in food speculation. Next email goes off to my MP. Derek Robertson

Shaping the powers of the new financial regulatory body

Spoke to lady at FSA, who reminded me that they are being wound down as a body, but that there should be an alternative regulatory framework put in place soon. This is therefore a key time to make sure that the new regulatory framework has the power to act on trade justice issues. Is there a good source of information on the Coalition's initial plans on this front? Do we know who are the key people involved? Also, doesn't it make sense to focus on price rises on basic foods such as bread rather than diluting the message by talking about luxuries such as coffee and chocolate? Re the comments left by others above, I'd be interested to read response from the WDM about the suggestion that the biggest swing in food prices was for rice - which was not affected by speculation. Is this correct? Anyway, my main conclusion from the call is that now is a good time to contact MPs about this issue, but perhaps there then needs to be a further action relating to ensuring that the new regulatory body has the necessary powers to play a positive role in bringing about trade justice. All the best Anna

They really are very nice at the FSA!

I just called as well, got through to a really helpful woman who ran through the entirety of the remit of the FSA (very patiently, bless her!) and then we both bemoaned the fact that they only really have power to help with consumer related issues. It definitely sounded like she'd had a few calls about it already! She advised contacting my local mp about the specific issue, but also to raise the question of why there is effectively no regulator for these international transactions that allow the hunger casino to exist in the first place. Now to write to my MP and get them to bring it up with the DTI, DEFRA and maybe even DFID

Helpful and friendly response

The lady I spoke to said "We can definitely help, but we'll just have to take a few details." Then they asked for my full name, my title, my postal address, my email address and my phone number! I asked what all the info was for and she said they might use it to contact me about my query. Re: food speculation, she said "This is not something that we really regulate" and that they "can't comment" on it because it's in the media at the moment... funny, I thought media coverage should provide extra impetus for the FSA to set out their position on this. She then gave me contact details for the company secretary, who is the person who sets out the rules of what the FSA can and can't regulate (presumably once that power is granted by the government). The contact details are: complaints@fsa.gov.uk 0207 066 9870 She said they've had a lot of calls about food speculation this morning! She seemed clued up and keen to help.

Food Speculation

I rang FSA & pressed 4. Received an apology for delay because of heavy demand but was in fact put through immediately. The lady I spoke to asked if I was willing to give my contact details, which I was happy to do (including age!) and when I expressed my concern she explained that the FSA had no authority to regulate the banks but that as a voter it was my right to express my concern through my local MP. I asked whether the FSA could put pressure on the Government to act on this matter but she repeated that FSA had no authority and that I could write to my MP. She thanked me for calling and assured me that my call would be logged.

Second attempt

Just got through to the Perimeter Guidance Team at the FSA at the second attempt. They've clearly now got a standard line for responding to queries - didn't manage to write it all down, but lots of stuff about the FSA having a role to 'liaise with the exchanges' to ensure that the owners of derivatives are fully aware of their risk level and that trading is 'clear and fair', but with no FSA role in terms of controlling prices. I asked them to email me the statement, but they can't do that - would have to email them and it would take 12 days to respond!

Got through after long wait.

Got through after long wait. Sympathetic response from FSA saying they understood our concerns, but said their powers were limited in this respect and advised me to lobby my MP to get law changed so the regulatory body could control such food speculation.

What the FSA said to me

The person at the FSA said that the FSA head office was preparing a statement on the issue of speculation on food. He said that they had had a number of calls recently on this issue but that they don't have the regulatory powers to deal with it and only deal with domestic UK problems such as mortgages that have been wrongly sold to people, etc. and that their powers were going to be taken away from them in a year or so. He didn't say that another office was going to be set up which would have these powers however. I asked him who I could contact who had the powers to change this situation regarding speculation on food prices and he said that I should contact my MP and go down the governmental route. I asked him for a name in the government to contact in order to get my point across more effectively. He said that he in his office didn't have such a name for me to contact. I said that I had contacted the Chancellor but hadn't received a reply and that I had contacted my MP but as yet had not received a reply but that it was only a week ago that I had sent an action card via www.WDM.org.uk to her. I said that I would ring back in a few days to get further updates from the FSA.

A quite wonderful report

You spend pages and pages telling us how financial markets and speculation increase price volatility. Then you tell us that rice, where there are no such markets, had a larger price swing than the commodities in which there were financial markets and speculation. People who can both read and think would probably, from that, take away the standard economic idea that speculation reduces price volatility. Pity you've spent 34 pages trying to argue the opposite really.

Food speculation

I have just participated in a conference in Swanwick on food held by the National Justice & Peace Network of the Catholic Church. Vandana Shiva, the well-known international activist, criticised the financial speculation in food and its effect of putting prices outside the pockets of the poor. There should be an international law prohibiting speculation in food so as to enable the poor throughout the world to buy their basic nutritional necessities. How can the United nations Declaration of Human Rights to basic nutrition be observed if financial speculators gamble on food just to make personal profit?