VOA标准英语2011--Farm Ministers Call for Commodity Market

Farm Ministers Call for Commodity Market Regulation

Wild swings
Woody Barth has been farming and raising cattle in North Dakota for about 30 years. He says he always looked to the commodity markets for stability. But that's changed in recent years.
"We've seen a lot of wild swings in the market," says Barth. "I mean, a day of five cents up on the corn market, 10 cents up on the wheat market, up or down, was a big day five, seven years ago, 10 years ago. But that's a quiet day nowadays."
Corn, or maize¹, has hit its 30-cent one-day trading limit 51 times so far this year on the major U.S. grain exchange. That's up from 36 times in all of last year.
Avoiding these wild price swings is one reason why farmers and food makers² are in the commodity markets to begin with. They can set prices today for crops that are still in the ground.
Transferred risk
That lowers the risk that weather or other factors beyond their control will push prices up or down come harvest time, says economist³ John Anderson with the American Farm Bureau Federation⁴.
"There are so many things we don't know. And so, the people who are involved in these markets face tremendous risk. And the whole point of these markets is to allow a way for that risk to be transferred."
Transferred to someone who is willing to gamble on what the price of a commodity will be in the future. That is what speculators do - they take on that risk because where there is risk, there may be reward.
So a certain amount of speculation⁵ is a good thing, says Michael Masters, head of the hedge fund Masters Capital Management. "You need enough liquidity⁶ from speculators to provide grease for the wheels, if you will."
Flood of new money
But something changed in the mid-2000s. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other large institutional investors⁷ began looking to commodity market speculation as a way to diversify⁸ their portfolios⁹.
Masters says investments in commodity index funds rose from $13 billion in 2003 to about $400 billion today. He says the flood of new money is helping¹⁰ to push prices up.
"Prices move when new money comes into a market. So if you have a house, and one buyer shows up, you may sell it at one price. On the other hand, if you have a house and five buyers show up, you're going to sell it at another price."
Masters adds that speculators used to make up about a third of the money in commodity markets. Now they dominate many of them. He says markets today are much more volatile¹¹ because there is much more money reacting to good or bad news about crop supplies.
"If there's a certain amount of speculative¹² capital, it's going to move a certain price. But if there's 20 times that amount of speculative capital, then it's going to move much more."
Push for new regulations
France has used its position as current head of the G20 to speak out against excessive speculation.
French agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire says high and unstable¹³ food prices affect the poor the most. "Nobody can accept to have speculation on the poorest countries in the world, on the people in the world."
The French have been pushing for stricter regulations on commodity speculation in their role as head of the G20. But the negotiations¹⁴ faced stiff opposition¹⁵ -- for the simple reason that many are not convinced that speculators are to blame.
"I don't think there's a very good case at all to be made for much of a speculative impact in our grain markets right now," says economist Scott Irwin at the University of Illinois, adding that most research on the subject does not show that the mere¹⁶ presence of more speculators pushes prices up.
And the evidence that they are adding to volatility¹⁷ is not conclusive¹⁸.
"There's no smoking gun that clearly points towards the kind of volatility and manipulation problems," says Irwin. "If that's not there, why do you need the new regulations to begin with?"
Irwin adds that new regulations may even push out the speculators the markets need to function smoothly¹⁹.
He says there is a much simpler explanation for why prices are so high and unpredictable today: supplies of many food commodities are extremely low and demand is extremely high. With such small margins²⁰ of error, any little bump will send shudders²¹ through the market. And the market has taken a lot of bumps in the past year, from drought in Russia to floods in Canada to heat waves in the United States.
"We just have had a really kind-of amazing string of just plain bad luck with weather. And it just keeps accumulating recently."
Experts say it will take at least two years of good harvests to build enough stocks to buffer²² prices.
In the meantime, the agreement the G20 agriculture ministers reached calls for "appropriate regulation and supervision²³" of commodity markets. It makes some suggestions, but provides few details. And it leaves the issue to the G20 finance ministers to work out what regulations are appropriate. A G20-appointed commission is expected to deliver its recommendations in the fall.

1 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

2 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

5 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

6 liquidity   

n.流动性，偿债能力，流动资产

参考例句：

• The bank has progressively increased its liquidity.银行逐渐地增加其流动资产。
• The demand for and the supply of credit is closely linked to changes in liquidity.信用的供求和流动资金的变化有密切关系。

7 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

8 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

9 portfolios   

n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 )；（保险）业务量；（公司或机构提供的）系列产品；纸夹

参考例句：

• Price risk arises in non-trading portfolios, as well as in trading portfolios. 价格风险中出现的非贸易投资，以及在贸易投资组合。 来自互联网
• How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? 我们怎样育肥我们的投资结构和维持财政健康呢？ 来自互联网

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

12 speculative   

adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的

参考例句：

• Much of our information is speculative.我们的许多信息是带推测性的。
• The report is highly speculative and should be ignored.那个报道推测的成分很大，不应理会。

13 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

14 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

15 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

16 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

17 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

18 conclusive   

adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的

参考例句：

• They produced some fairly conclusive evidence.他们提供了一些相当确凿的证据。
• Franklin did not believe that the French tests were conclusive.富兰克林不相信这个法国人的实验是结论性的。

19 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

20 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

21 shudders   

n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• It gives me the shudders. （（口语））它使我战栗。 来自辞典例句
• The ghastly sight gave him the shudders. 那恐怖的景象使他感到恐惧。 来自辞典例句

22 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。

23 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。