Congress Castrates Commodities Futures Trading Watchdog

The agency established in 1974 to police the trading of oil, natural gas, silver and other commodities in the $40 trillion dollar futures market has had an $11 million budget cut that has resulted in a halt of the technology program used to flag suspicious trading. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been hit with a significant budget shortfall and it is unclear how it will spend the money it has left. In the meantime, the only significant watchdog mechanism over illegal trading on the commodities futures market is non existent.