Futures

[LDAHL]

Years ago in my irresponsible youth, I traded futures. Fingers appropriately burned, I gave it up. But in talking to a friend who thinks he can cash in on continuing high inflation by speculating on some future prices, I learned a few things. For instance, you can trade in tomato futures, but onion futures are illegal. You can speculate on future treasury yields but not on movie box office receipts. I can think of no reason why this should be so, except for the power of lobbyists. And even so, why would Big Onion be opposed to hedging future onion prices?

[frugal-one]

Same with some labor laws. Some companies can do things, others can't.... lobbyists made it so?

[bae]

Nifty:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act#:~:text=The%20Onion%20Futures%20 Act%20is,motion%20picture%20box%20office%20receipt s%22.&text=In%201955%2C%20two%20onion%20traders,on%20the %20Chicago%20Mercantile%20Exchange.

[LDAHL]

So a couple of guys tried to corner the onion market in 1958, and we still have this law now?

I read that in France it’s still illegal to name your pig “Napoleon”.