As simply as you can, please 'splain what the Enron loophole is.

[ColbertWatcher]

There has been a lot of talk about it, I suspect I know what it is, but to save face for myself and anyone else who isn't quite sure, can someone please explain what the Enron loophole is?

Thank you.

[Ian David]

1. Keith Olbermann did a good job explaining "The Enron Loophole" last night...

KO: John McCain's Connection to Big Oil & The Enron Loophole
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x149255

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Passed in 12/2000, and introduced by Phil Gramm, it exempts energy speculators who make trades

electronically from US regulation. It's gone. Was put into the farm bill that was passed yesterday, with veto-proof support.

Edited to correct spelling of Gramm.

[indypaul]

7. SB 3283 passed in 2000 as

"Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, introduced by
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) co-sponsored by Senators Gramm (R-TX),
Fitzgerald (R-IL), Hagel (R-SD), Johnson (D-SD) Harkin (D-IA). See
Congressional Record 12/15/2000, p S11924-11927. Think Gramm was
able to dupe others into supporting this legislation which ultimately
was packaged into an amendment of an appropriation bill that was passed
shortly before Christmas Recess in 2000. Little doubt the instigator
was Gramm but he had to have help that others willingly provided and
should share equally in responsibility for the mess this legislation
created.

[malaise]

3. Check these threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3480390

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3483029

[NashVegas]

4. Electronic Commodities Trades Exempt from Regulation

But now, 8 years after energy traders were able to push legislation exempting their electronic trades of energy futures from US regulation, a measure in the Farm Bill aims to close the loophole and subject futures trades made electronically inside the United States to US law.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/congress-seeks.html


http://www.closetheenronloophole.com/

[liberal N proud]

5. Sort of like closing the barn door after the horse ran away

[NashVegas]

6. And The Horse Can Still Find Another Barn

The legislation closing the loophole is meaningless unless the federal Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, the agency charged with regulating energy trades, enforces the law. To do that, they need to the tools and the resources and, perhaps more importantly, the political will to put the cop back on the beat.

Moreover, speculators still have a free hand to continue gaming the market using the “Foreign Exchange” loophole. Similar to the Enron Loophole, this aspect of commodities law allows commodities markets that are owned by foreign entities to operate beyond the reach of federal oversight – despite the fact that their offices are open for business right here in the United States.

Closing the Enron Loophole and suspending shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stand as victories for American consumers, without question, but these actions also represent only the first step in what promises to be an arduous and ongoing battle against Wall Street greed.

http://www.closetheenronloophole.com/

[housewolf]

8. "Enron Loophole" - legislation that de-regulated part of the trading market

that allowed the Enron traders to wreck havoc on our economy through the use of so-called "dark markets" - i.e., unregulated markets. It's what oil speculators are not using to wreck havoc on our economy through speciulation of oil futures.

It was "slipped through" Congress in December, 2000 by Phil Gramm, senator from Texas.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Correct me if I am wrong....

but wouldn't writing legislation to demand that the speculators take "possession" of the commodity fix this problem?

www.wearableartnow.com