Grace, Here you go again. SO WHAT!!?? You often write lovely critiques/explainers. Heck books.
BUT I'm not seeing any actionable, realistic, solution being offered?
Can "markets" be regulated again? If not, why not? etc. If they can, is that the answer? What more.
Simple bullets as a start - you know, like a Project PLAN, Do a, then b. Sales people talk of "handling the objection". So against 'a' etc show us how "power" will act to stop "good". Then how that is counteracted.
Hi Ian, it's absurd to expect every article on an issue as complex as this to contain a detailed plan as to how to fix the problem (though I have written several books on the subject, and you'd be welcome to read them if you're looking for a 'plan').
But I think that it's precisely this kind of juvenile thinking (give me bullet points telling me what to do) that has held the left back for so long. You should read this piece if you'd like to understand why: https://graceblakeley.substack.com/p/no-one-is-coming-to-save-you
Grace, financial markets are among the most heavily regulated sectors in existence. The reason certain actors profit so enormously from wars is precisely because governments grant them privileges through regulation and pursue military engagements from which those actors benefit. Far from being “unregulated” -as you incorrectly suggest - these markets would have collapsed many times over throughout the crises of the past century without government intervention propping them up. It should be self-evident that government power, not free markets, is the root cause of the very problems you attribute to capitalism.
It is also the government - not the financial sector, not the military-industrial complex, not even the invading armies themselves - that holds the coercive power to compel households to pay.
None of those actors possess that authority independently. Government does, and it exercises it without restraint.
What we are witnessing is not capitalism run amok; it is corporate socialism in action: private profits guaranteed by public power, losses socialized onto taxpayers, and competition eliminated through regulatory capture. That is precisely the kind of system you, as a socialist, advocate for.
Total taxation, total regulation, planned economy. This is it, Grace, this is the socialist utopia.
Hi Klaun, at no point did I use the term "unregulated" - I used the term "deregulated" to refer to a change in the rules governing commodities trading (specifically the 2003 Commodity Futures Modernization Act).
While the points you're raising about state planning of financial markets are broadly correct (indeed, I wrote a book on the subject), it is correct to say that the CFMA was a deregulatory move. Why?
Becuase the act actually moved large parts of the OTC swaps market *outside of the orbit of regulators*. The regulation has changed again somewhat since then, but the CFTC’s 2020 rule only imposes federal speculative position limits on 25 physically settled commodity contracts. So there are still large parts of carved out large areas of the market with big carve outs from existing regulation and oversight, especially in over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
But that is precisely the point, Grace. The market remains regulated, regardless of how narrow or broad the scope may be. An entirely unregulated financial system would collapse under the scale of risk these institutions are currently able to assume. In such a system, financial institutions would function as de facto gambling operations, repeatedly bankrupting participants and eroding capital on a massive scale. The destruction of wealth would be so severe that rational actors would eventually disengage.
The same dynamic applies to monetary expansion by the state, with large financial institutions typically acting as the primary beneficiaries of newly created money. This preferential access should not exist. The government should not possess the authority to create money at will.
It is precisely these privileges, combined with regulatory structures that concentrate risk while socializing losses, that perpetuate the current stalemate. This condition cannot be resolved as long as the response is more regulation and further government intervention.
The power to allocate risk and absorb losses must be removed from the state. Those who choose to speculate with their capital should be free to do so and equally compelled to bear the consequences. They should not be able to transfer those losses to the public through the same governmental mechanisms that have historically granted them protection and advantage.
Hi Klaun, just in case you missed this, I never used the term "unregulated". No one is arguing that commodities markets are "unregulated" - you are debating a position that does not exist.
At the same time, it's worth doing some research into the actual changes that have been made to the regulation of commodities trading - changes I outlined in my previous comment - if you want to understand why its correct to use the term "deregulated".
Grace, this is sharp. The transmission mechanism is the point.
War doesn’t just raise prices. It accelerates how quickly expectations turn into costs for households. Futures markets move in seconds. Wages don’t.
One layer I’d add: not all of this is distortion. Futures markets also carry information and hedge risk. The problem is when price discovery turns into amplification.
That’s when volatility stops reflecting scarcity and starts creating it.
Which is where your conclusion lands — households absorb the speed of the system, while finance captures the spread.
A perfect illustration of a committee of vultures if ever there was one Grace. In flight, a group of vultures is called a kettle, and when feeding on a carcass, the group is referred to as a wake. An exceptionally appropriate description of commodity trader’s behaviours I’d say. Hang around, look for a victim, and then devour what’s left of it.
The more details we know about how Wall Street and Capitalism works, the more they resemble a Casino. But instead of Blackjack, Texas Hold’em, the Roulette Wheel, and Slot machines, WS has speculative markets, derivatives schemes, as well as standard investment cons.
The House always wins — even when it doesn’t, and we (the people) always lose.
Despite the comments of others here you are completely correct.
This type of gambling, with huge amounts of our Sovereign money that inevitably affects the market prices of commodities, must be outlawed in my view.
Anything that has an adverse impact on real prices to real people that, is gambling then, it must be fully and harshly regulated to stop that cause effecting the real prices to the public.
And of course the savvy insiders who can glean knowledge or predict such knowledge must be stopped. It’s not presently heavily regulated or outlawed.
This type of gambling on real lives and their costs to live is not right in my view. It’s a game for groups of those holding vast sums to bet on outcomes. My view is they shouldn’t have vast sums to gamble in that way. Holding money beyond a defined time is a cause of our problems when expecting a money resupply.
Instead, as you may recall Grace, it’s my opinion that money itself must be SPENT back to those who supplied it in the first place, the general public!
It’s through their endeavours the general public that produce the stuff of life and it’s that revenue from our collective SPENDING that drives the economy. Not this type of ‘buck’ that adversely affects the supposedly unmollested ‘market’.
Money is being abused like this. Money should be a fair exchange of work effort. In the open fair and free market. Of exchanging our work, yours for mine.
Now, the fairness is considered by the SPENDER. They have won the right to choose how it’s SPENT. But it has to be SPENT back in a rotation to ensure the rest of us gets it back! That’s the need! To get money back without the pain and worry and stress that withholding its glow back causes.
Our system fails us by allowing money to be held onto for so long and in increasing amounts not ever being returned. That can’t be allowed and shouldn’t be allowed.
Moreover a time limit should be enforced by which money has to be SPENT. Thus stopping the hoarding of such vast sums of money that can as shown, BUCK the fair market.
Not only is it allowed not to return it’s not even taxed! As unspent money triggers no tax take. None.
As we have a skewed tax system that relies on SPENDING as a trigger for tax (even income tax and Nic are triggered by the SPENDING of the employers money on employees and employers pay those taxes by SPENDING then all taxation comes as a result of money moving or having to be moved by it’s SPENDING then, to get more tax revenue (for our government) then, we need more of the money back to SPEND that gives government that extra tax take. So it’s obvious that money can’t be slowed down or hoarded. It must be constantly moving. Constantly flowing back to us so we can once again recycle money faster and in more weight.
Then you get an economy firing on all cylinders Grace. You can’t get GROWTH without there being more of our money being SPENT by ALL citizens each monthly cycle. Not kept away outside our economy UNSPENT. How can UNSPENT money give us back the funds we are desperately needing? It can’t Grace!
So in my mind the ‘city’ is the problem not the answer, they unfairly and undemocratically withhold money flow back to us! Should much so they can play games with it like this type of gambling. It’s a closed shop of those holding too much money to waste on betting. Instead of it being naturally and fairly returned to the main economy that desperately needs the resupply of that very money.
Grace money shouldn’t be wealth. Money isn’t for keeping. It’s supposed to be the fair returning to the system that feeds it. And the way it’s returned is supposed to be by SPENDING. Because our tax system has to rely on it. Without money being SPENT our tax system like us, is being made devoid of that revenue stream.
Every single month we already have enforced SPENDING. Income tax and Nic are enforced. The employers are forced to pay it by such laws. Bilks, loans, duty taxes, vat and council taxes. Insurance payments, pension payments and living costs. Rents, mortgages parking tickets, subscriptions food heating lights. You name it and we are told to SPEND on it.
Yet there is no reciprocal rules based law that makes UNSPENT money move. Despite the fact we can do that now. We have a digital banking system that can easily respond to that need. But we don’t choose to!
Because, it has been that way for centuries. They couldn’t not control unspent money. So they began to arbitrarily charge taxes. By the time in history governments could control money better then, a percentage of earnings was thought up because, they could! As incomes began to be recorded. They based taxation on that.
After mire time, they decided to also charge taxation on the SPENDING of money. Vat and duty. Because they could. But they could never tax UNSPENT money. They had no mechanism to know. And bank accounts were secret. And it lined their own pockets.
So that’s why we still have no system of taxation in UNSPENT money. Yet we have to pay our way by a date. And it’s that paradox combined either no enforced SPENDING of UNSPENT money that has led us to this state of stagnation and need for money without the system resupplying it or taxing the hell out of the UNSPENT money side if our economy.
Think back to what money is for? It’s for the fair exchange of work by exchanging that represented amount if money. The key word is ‘exchange’.
If money isn’t being exchanged then the system is failing us all. It’s by NOT exchanging money that causes that inbuilt system expectation to fail. By NOT SPENDING money then the implied contract of receiving money, is distorted and skewed and restricting the expected natural flow back. And this is the central problem of our monetary system that allows the rich to get richer whilst we and the poor pay for it. By us getting poorer! This inbuilt rule and law failure must be remedied through finally give us all the fair and free market that we all want need and expect. SPENDING is the method of exchange. And by NOT SPENDING is the cause of our cash flow problem.
Financialization has been occupied by a small group of elites. Ordinary people have little knowledge of it. Financialization is hard to be put under scrutiny for it is undemocratic and not transparent. We have to devise ways to democratize it so that the multitude can enjoy its benefits and avoid its harms.
Why do ordinary people without inside knowledge do this, anyway? They may as well hand their money to an insider.
My thoughts exactly!
Well f us. 😡
Bravo, Grace, for this lucid, lancing piece.
Grace, Here you go again. SO WHAT!!?? You often write lovely critiques/explainers. Heck books.
BUT I'm not seeing any actionable, realistic, solution being offered?
Can "markets" be regulated again? If not, why not? etc. If they can, is that the answer? What more.
Simple bullets as a start - you know, like a Project PLAN, Do a, then b. Sales people talk of "handling the objection". So against 'a' etc show us how "power" will act to stop "good". Then how that is counteracted.
Hard, isn't it?
Hi Ian, it's absurd to expect every article on an issue as complex as this to contain a detailed plan as to how to fix the problem (though I have written several books on the subject, and you'd be welcome to read them if you're looking for a 'plan').
But I think that it's precisely this kind of juvenile thinking (give me bullet points telling me what to do) that has held the left back for so long. You should read this piece if you'd like to understand why: https://graceblakeley.substack.com/p/no-one-is-coming-to-save-you
Enjoyed this piece and the "no one is coming to save you". As one ages, it isn't even worth explaining ;)
What's your simple plan Ian?
Grace, financial markets are among the most heavily regulated sectors in existence. The reason certain actors profit so enormously from wars is precisely because governments grant them privileges through regulation and pursue military engagements from which those actors benefit. Far from being “unregulated” -as you incorrectly suggest - these markets would have collapsed many times over throughout the crises of the past century without government intervention propping them up. It should be self-evident that government power, not free markets, is the root cause of the very problems you attribute to capitalism.
It is also the government - not the financial sector, not the military-industrial complex, not even the invading armies themselves - that holds the coercive power to compel households to pay.
None of those actors possess that authority independently. Government does, and it exercises it without restraint.
What we are witnessing is not capitalism run amok; it is corporate socialism in action: private profits guaranteed by public power, losses socialized onto taxpayers, and competition eliminated through regulatory capture. That is precisely the kind of system you, as a socialist, advocate for.
Total taxation, total regulation, planned economy. This is it, Grace, this is the socialist utopia.
Hi Klaun, at no point did I use the term "unregulated" - I used the term "deregulated" to refer to a change in the rules governing commodities trading (specifically the 2003 Commodity Futures Modernization Act).
While the points you're raising about state planning of financial markets are broadly correct (indeed, I wrote a book on the subject), it is correct to say that the CFMA was a deregulatory move. Why?
Becuase the act actually moved large parts of the OTC swaps market *outside of the orbit of regulators*. The regulation has changed again somewhat since then, but the CFTC’s 2020 rule only imposes federal speculative position limits on 25 physically settled commodity contracts. So there are still large parts of carved out large areas of the market with big carve outs from existing regulation and oversight, especially in over-the-counter (OTC) markets.
But that is precisely the point, Grace. The market remains regulated, regardless of how narrow or broad the scope may be. An entirely unregulated financial system would collapse under the scale of risk these institutions are currently able to assume. In such a system, financial institutions would function as de facto gambling operations, repeatedly bankrupting participants and eroding capital on a massive scale. The destruction of wealth would be so severe that rational actors would eventually disengage.
The same dynamic applies to monetary expansion by the state, with large financial institutions typically acting as the primary beneficiaries of newly created money. This preferential access should not exist. The government should not possess the authority to create money at will.
It is precisely these privileges, combined with regulatory structures that concentrate risk while socializing losses, that perpetuate the current stalemate. This condition cannot be resolved as long as the response is more regulation and further government intervention.
The power to allocate risk and absorb losses must be removed from the state. Those who choose to speculate with their capital should be free to do so and equally compelled to bear the consequences. They should not be able to transfer those losses to the public through the same governmental mechanisms that have historically granted them protection and advantage.
Hi Klaun, just in case you missed this, I never used the term "unregulated". No one is arguing that commodities markets are "unregulated" - you are debating a position that does not exist.
At the same time, it's worth doing some research into the actual changes that have been made to the regulation of commodities trading - changes I outlined in my previous comment - if you want to understand why its correct to use the term "deregulated".
Grace, this is sharp. The transmission mechanism is the point.
War doesn’t just raise prices. It accelerates how quickly expectations turn into costs for households. Futures markets move in seconds. Wages don’t.
One layer I’d add: not all of this is distortion. Futures markets also carry information and hedge risk. The problem is when price discovery turns into amplification.
That’s when volatility stops reflecting scarcity and starts creating it.
Which is where your conclusion lands — households absorb the speed of the system, while finance captures the spread.
Excellent analysis. Thanks
A perfect illustration of a committee of vultures if ever there was one Grace. In flight, a group of vultures is called a kettle, and when feeding on a carcass, the group is referred to as a wake. An exceptionally appropriate description of commodity trader’s behaviours I’d say. Hang around, look for a victim, and then devour what’s left of it.
The more details we know about how Wall Street and Capitalism works, the more they resemble a Casino. But instead of Blackjack, Texas Hold’em, the Roulette Wheel, and Slot machines, WS has speculative markets, derivatives schemes, as well as standard investment cons.
The House always wins — even when it doesn’t, and we (the people) always lose.
Thanks Grace.
A real casino on war and oíl production... Surely the'll buy their best luxury corpse-box!
A great observation of reality Grace.
Despite the comments of others here you are completely correct.
This type of gambling, with huge amounts of our Sovereign money that inevitably affects the market prices of commodities, must be outlawed in my view.
Anything that has an adverse impact on real prices to real people that, is gambling then, it must be fully and harshly regulated to stop that cause effecting the real prices to the public.
And of course the savvy insiders who can glean knowledge or predict such knowledge must be stopped. It’s not presently heavily regulated or outlawed.
This type of gambling on real lives and their costs to live is not right in my view. It’s a game for groups of those holding vast sums to bet on outcomes. My view is they shouldn’t have vast sums to gamble in that way. Holding money beyond a defined time is a cause of our problems when expecting a money resupply.
Instead, as you may recall Grace, it’s my opinion that money itself must be SPENT back to those who supplied it in the first place, the general public!
It’s through their endeavours the general public that produce the stuff of life and it’s that revenue from our collective SPENDING that drives the economy. Not this type of ‘buck’ that adversely affects the supposedly unmollested ‘market’.
Money is being abused like this. Money should be a fair exchange of work effort. In the open fair and free market. Of exchanging our work, yours for mine.
Now, the fairness is considered by the SPENDER. They have won the right to choose how it’s SPENT. But it has to be SPENT back in a rotation to ensure the rest of us gets it back! That’s the need! To get money back without the pain and worry and stress that withholding its glow back causes.
Our system fails us by allowing money to be held onto for so long and in increasing amounts not ever being returned. That can’t be allowed and shouldn’t be allowed.
Moreover a time limit should be enforced by which money has to be SPENT. Thus stopping the hoarding of such vast sums of money that can as shown, BUCK the fair market.
Not only is it allowed not to return it’s not even taxed! As unspent money triggers no tax take. None.
As we have a skewed tax system that relies on SPENDING as a trigger for tax (even income tax and Nic are triggered by the SPENDING of the employers money on employees and employers pay those taxes by SPENDING then all taxation comes as a result of money moving or having to be moved by it’s SPENDING then, to get more tax revenue (for our government) then, we need more of the money back to SPEND that gives government that extra tax take. So it’s obvious that money can’t be slowed down or hoarded. It must be constantly moving. Constantly flowing back to us so we can once again recycle money faster and in more weight.
Then you get an economy firing on all cylinders Grace. You can’t get GROWTH without there being more of our money being SPENT by ALL citizens each monthly cycle. Not kept away outside our economy UNSPENT. How can UNSPENT money give us back the funds we are desperately needing? It can’t Grace!
So in my mind the ‘city’ is the problem not the answer, they unfairly and undemocratically withhold money flow back to us! Should much so they can play games with it like this type of gambling. It’s a closed shop of those holding too much money to waste on betting. Instead of it being naturally and fairly returned to the main economy that desperately needs the resupply of that very money.
Grace money shouldn’t be wealth. Money isn’t for keeping. It’s supposed to be the fair returning to the system that feeds it. And the way it’s returned is supposed to be by SPENDING. Because our tax system has to rely on it. Without money being SPENT our tax system like us, is being made devoid of that revenue stream.
Every single month we already have enforced SPENDING. Income tax and Nic are enforced. The employers are forced to pay it by such laws. Bilks, loans, duty taxes, vat and council taxes. Insurance payments, pension payments and living costs. Rents, mortgages parking tickets, subscriptions food heating lights. You name it and we are told to SPEND on it.
Yet there is no reciprocal rules based law that makes UNSPENT money move. Despite the fact we can do that now. We have a digital banking system that can easily respond to that need. But we don’t choose to!
Because, it has been that way for centuries. They couldn’t not control unspent money. So they began to arbitrarily charge taxes. By the time in history governments could control money better then, a percentage of earnings was thought up because, they could! As incomes began to be recorded. They based taxation on that.
After mire time, they decided to also charge taxation on the SPENDING of money. Vat and duty. Because they could. But they could never tax UNSPENT money. They had no mechanism to know. And bank accounts were secret. And it lined their own pockets.
So that’s why we still have no system of taxation in UNSPENT money. Yet we have to pay our way by a date. And it’s that paradox combined either no enforced SPENDING of UNSPENT money that has led us to this state of stagnation and need for money without the system resupplying it or taxing the hell out of the UNSPENT money side if our economy.
Think back to what money is for? It’s for the fair exchange of work by exchanging that represented amount if money. The key word is ‘exchange’.
If money isn’t being exchanged then the system is failing us all. It’s by NOT exchanging money that causes that inbuilt system expectation to fail. By NOT SPENDING money then the implied contract of receiving money, is distorted and skewed and restricting the expected natural flow back. And this is the central problem of our monetary system that allows the rich to get richer whilst we and the poor pay for it. By us getting poorer! This inbuilt rule and law failure must be remedied through finally give us all the fair and free market that we all want need and expect. SPENDING is the method of exchange. And by NOT SPENDING is the cause of our cash flow problem.
Financialization has been occupied by a small group of elites. Ordinary people have little knowledge of it. Financialization is hard to be put under scrutiny for it is undemocratic and not transparent. We have to devise ways to democratize it so that the multitude can enjoy its benefits and avoid its harms.