| "President Obama proposed measures Tuesday to step up oversight of energy markets and boost by tenfold the penalties for market manipulation, in an effort to blunt political pressure over the 20 percent increase in gasoline prices since the beginning of the year. The new measures would, with congressional approval, provide an additional $52 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, boost civil and criminal penalties from $1 million per violation to $10 million a day for violations and give the CFTC greater power to set margin requirements that would force traders to provide more cash and reduce leverage when buying contracts...Lawmakers on both sides of the political divide have alleged that 'speculation' is partly responsible for the jump in oil prices over the past year, but they have not offered any examples, either." |
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