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We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to begin consultation with developed countries with a view to creating global controls on speculation in essential commodities such as food and fuel. More details
Submitted by Peter W. Phillpotts – Deadline to sign up by: 11 February 2009 – Signatures: 6
More details from petition creator
The "Free Market" is a return to 19th century "Laissez Faire" policies, reverting us to the Law of the Jungle. This is not civilisation. The recent spike in oil prices has been revealed indeed to have been mainly speculation rather than demand driven, and current food prices could well prove similar. Having abandoned property, speculatory money has to be 'invested' somewhere else. There is no "trickle down effect". Money drawn into the speculation black hole serves only to attract more; it has to. It's objective is only to increase available funds for this purpose; gambling "chips", if you like. Worse, it's macro effect is purely inflationary. International effort will be required to limit this growth, including semi-hostile nations such as Russia and China. No one country can stand up to these barons alone, and all ultimately will suffer from their depredations. An ever increasing proportion of global GDP is being tied up in such activities.
