華盛頓的困境

????聯(lián)邦能源監(jiān)管委員會(huì)上周在年度執(zhí)法報(bào)告中寫(xiě)道，2011年以及在可預(yù)見(jiàn)的未來(lái)，它的首要關(guān)注點(diǎn)是“欺詐和市場(chǎng)操縱”。今年，該委員會(huì)的執(zhí)法辦公室了結(jié)了多少案子？9宗。民事罰款總額約570萬(wàn)美元。這是什么概念呢？要知道僅僅感恩節(jié)這一周，美國(guó)人的加油支出就超過(guò)了2億美元。

????在西弗吉尼亞州民主黨參議院約翰?D?洛克菲勒四世（洛克菲勒四世正巧是石油大亨約翰?D?洛克菲勒的曾孫）的敦促下，聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)也自行啟動(dòng)了對(duì)油氣市場(chǎng)的調(diào)查，希望能查清“石油開(kāi)采商、煉油廠、運(yùn)輸企業(yè)、銷(xiāo)售企業(yè)、實(shí)物/金融交易商或其他各方”有沒(méi)有違反該委員會(huì)的規(guī)定——特別是其《禁止操縱能源市場(chǎng)條例》（Prohibition of Energy Market Manipulation Rule）?？蔡鼐S爾最近在參議院聽(tīng)證會(huì)上提問(wèn)時(shí)，就特別關(guān)注了聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)積極貫徹《禁止操縱能源市場(chǎng)條例》的力度?！敦?cái)富》雜志（Fortune）獨(dú)家獲悉了這些尚未公開(kāi)的問(wèn)題。

????聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)尚未宣布任何逮捕行動(dòng)，可能要一直等到結(jié)案才會(huì)采取相關(guān)行動(dòng)。司法部也一樣，對(duì)此沒(méi)有時(shí)間表。而且，聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會(huì)強(qiáng)調(diào)，它通常不會(huì)披露調(diào)查的存在，但這次洛克菲勒議員則選擇將之公布于眾。

????與此同時(shí)，美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)總是如此“全力”推進(jìn)調(diào)查，它會(huì)調(diào)查上幾年直到國(guó)會(huì)坐不住了，嚷嚷要求公布結(jié)果。（現(xiàn)成的一個(gè)例子就是2007年啟動(dòng)的油價(jià)投機(jī)大調(diào)查，拖了好幾年后最終莫名其妙地不了了之。該委員會(huì)內(nèi)部的一位高級(jí)別官員表示，“由于政治意愿不強(qiáng)”，調(diào)查根本就沒(méi)有做出最終的結(jié)論。）

????多德-弗蘭克法案（Dodd-Frank Act）令事情出現(xiàn)了類似的轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)。國(guó)會(huì)要求美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)在今年1月前通過(guò)新的限制石油和其他大宗商品過(guò)度交易的條例。雖然有多年的市場(chǎng)數(shù)據(jù)可調(diào)取，美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)仍然要求參議員們能給出更多的時(shí)間以便進(jìn)一步研究。

????保護(hù)消費(fèi)者是美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)的職責(zé)之一，但它更擔(dān)心傷害華爾街。委員們公開(kāi)表示，擔(dān)心有“控制狂”或“扼殺”市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)之嫌（這種可能性似乎沒(méi)有：今年以來(lái)，美國(guó)僅原油合同交易額就有幾萬(wàn)億美元，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于全球約8,900萬(wàn)桶/天的石油實(shí)物供應(yīng)量。）扼殺是這個(gè)市場(chǎng)最不需要擔(dān)心的事情。

????10月末，在超過(guò)最后期限近十個(gè)月后，美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)終于制定了華爾街公司在石油等戰(zhàn)略性商品市場(chǎng)上可建立的頭寸上限。兩位委員在對(duì)這一舉措進(jìn)行的投票中投了反對(duì)票，理由是它逾越了美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)的法定權(quán)限。

????然而，另外幾位參議員認(rèn)為這一舉措還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。佛蒙特州參議員伯納德?桑德斯（美國(guó)參議院歷史上任期最長(zhǎng)的一位獨(dú)立參議員）希望通過(guò)他所謂的《立即終止過(guò)度石油投機(jī)議案》（End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act）能擴(kuò)大這一做法。這一議案由包括洛克菲勒在內(nèi)的8位民主黨參議院提出，目的是遏制桑德斯認(rèn)為即便是按照美國(guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)最新的條例來(lái)衡量依然顯得過(guò)度的石油投機(jī)行為。8月份，桑德斯備受指責(zé)，因?yàn)樗读嗣绹?guó)商品期貨交易委員會(huì)的相關(guān)數(shù)據(jù)。數(shù)據(jù)顯示：2008年7月油價(jià)處于歷史高點(diǎn)近150美元/桶時(shí)，整個(gè)市場(chǎng)完全被高盛（Goldman Sachs）、摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）、摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）和隱秘的瑞士石油交易公司Vitol等大投機(jī)商主導(dǎo)。

????“我們當(dāng)前最大的一個(gè)問(wèn)題，”桑德斯最近寫(xiě)道，“是美國(guó)人能否通過(guò)國(guó)會(huì)遏制住華爾街貪婪、魯莽而非法的行為，以及華爾街是否會(huì)繼續(xù)擾亂我們國(guó)家的經(jīng)濟(jì)和工薪家庭的生活秩序?！?/p>

Washington's quandary

????For its part, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed last week in its annual enforcement report that its top priority in 2011 – and for the foreseeable future – is "fraud and market manipulation." How many cases were settled this year by its Office of Enforcement? Nine. That represents approximately $5.7 million in civil penalties. Just to put that into perspective, the tab at the pump for Americans over the Thanksgiving week came to more than $200 million.

????At the urging of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the Democrat from West Virginia who, incidentally, is the great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the Federal Trade Commission came forth with its own investigation into the oil and gas market, which seeks to determine whether "oil producers, refiners, transporters, marketers, physical financial traders or others" are violating the commission's rules – particularly, its Prohibition of Energy Market Manipulation Rule. Cantwell's questions during the recent Senate hearing paid special attention to the FTC's efforts to aggressively enforce that rule. The questions, exclusively reviewed by Fortune, have yet to be made public.

????According to the FTC, no apprehensions have been announced and probably won't be until the matter is concluded. As with the DOJ, there is no timetable for that. Further, the commission emphasizes that it usually does not disclose the existence of investigations, but in this case Rockefeller chose to make it public.

????Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is often so gung-ho about investigating an issue, it will probe it for years before Congress gets restless and begins clamoring for results. (A case in point: the grand investigation into oil speculation launched in 2007 that dragged on for years before being mysteriously discontinued. A high-ranking official inside the agency says the probe was never finalized "due to a lack of political appetite.")

????The Dodd-Frank Act led to a similar turn of events. Congress mandated that the CFTC approve new rules to limit overzealous trading in oil and other commodities by January of this year. Even with years of market data to draw from, the CFTC urged senators to give it more time to conduct additional studies.

????Protecting consumers is part of the CFTC's job, but it was more worried about hurting Wall Street. Commissioners openly fretted about appearing to be "control freaks" or "stifling" market competition. (This seems unlikely: In the year to date, the U.S. traded several trillion dollars of crude oil contracts alone, a number that dwarfs the amount of physical oil actually available on a global basis, which is about 89 million barrels a day.) Stifling is just about the last thing this market needs to be worried about.

????After overshooting its deadline by nearly 10 months, the CFTC in late October finally imposed limits on the size of the positions Wall Street firms are allowed to take in oil and other highly strategic commodities markets. Two of the five CFTC commissioners voting on the measure opposed it, stating that it overstepped the CFTC's statutory authority.

????Several senators felt the measure did not go far enough. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the longest-running Independent in the history of the U.S. Senate, aims to expand on the rule through legislation he dubs the "End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act." The bill, co-sponsored by eight Democratic senators, including Rockefeller, proposes to rein in what Sanders believes is too much oil speculation, even in light of the new CFTC rules. In August, Sanders drew criticism for leaking CFTC data showing that at the time of oil's record high near $150 a barrel in July 2008, the market was dominated by big speculative players such as Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), J.P. Morgan (JPM) and the secretive Swiss oil-trading firm Vitol.

????"One of the great questions of our time," Sanders recently wrote, "Is whether the American people, through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak havoc on our economy and the lives of working families."