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Food Speculation
Food speculation refers to the buying and selling of futures contracts or other commodity derivatives by traders with the aim of profiting from changes in food prices. Food speculation can be both positive and negative for food producers and buyers. It is betting on food prices in financial markets. Food speculation by global players like banks, hedge funds or pension funds is alleged to cause price swings in staple foods such as wheat, maize and soy – even though too large price swings in an idealized economy are theoretically ruled out: Adam Smith in 1776 reasoned that the only way to make money from commodities trading is by buying low and selling high, which has the effect of smoothing out price swings and mitigating shortages. For the actors, the apparently random swings are predictable, which means potential huge profits. For the global poor, food speculation and resulting price peaks may result in increased poverty or even famine. In contrast to food hoarding, specula ...
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Futures Contract
In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument. The predetermined price of the contract is known as the ''forward price'' or ''delivery price''. The specified time in the future when delivery and payment occur is known as the ''delivery date''. Because it derives its value from the value of the underlying asset, a futures contract is a Derivative (finance), derivative. Contracts are traded at futures exchanges, which act as a marketplace between buyers and sellers. The buyer of a contract is said to be the Long (finance), long position holder and the selling party is said to be the Short (finance), short position holder. As both parties risk their counter-party reneging if the price goes against them, the contract may involve both ...
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Hoarding (economics)
Hoarding in economics refers to the concept of purchasing and storing a large amount of a particular product, creating scarcity of that product, and ultimately driving the price of that product up. Commonly hoarded products include assets such as money, gold and Security (finance), public securities, as well as vital goods such as fuel and medicine. Consumers are primarily hoarding resources so that they can maintain their current consumption rate in the event of a shortage (Scarcity (social psychology), real or perceived). Hoarding resources can prevent or slow products or Commodity, commodities from traveling through the economy. Subsequently, this may cause the product or commodity to become scarce, causing the value of the resource to rise. A common intention of economic hoarding is to generate a profit by selling the product once the price has increased. Hence, economic Speculation#:~:text=Speculators play one of four,investors who seek profit through, speculators tend to hoar ...
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Commodities Futures Modernization Act
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) is a United States federal law that ensures that over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives remained unregulated. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had desired to have "functional regulation" of the market, but the CFMA rejected this approach. Instead, the CFTC continued to do "entity-based supervision of OTC derivatives dealers". The CFMA's handling of OTC derivatives, such as credit default swaps, has become controversial, as thesderivativesplayed a major role in the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 is a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that significantly altered the regulation of financial markets. Signed into law on December 21, 2000, the CFMA had several major impacts on the trading of derivatives, futures, and other financial instruments. Key Provisions:Deregulation of Over-the-Counter (OTC) Derivatives: One of the most si ...
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George W
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he is the eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, and was the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Bush flew warplanes in the Texas Air National Guard in his twenties. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. He later co-owned the Major League Baseball team Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers before being elected governor of Texas 1994 Texas gubernatorial election, in 1994. Governorship of George W. Bush, As governor, Bush successfully sponsored legislation for tort reform, increased education funding, set higher standards for schools, and reformed the criminal justice system. He also helped make Texas the Wind power in Texas, leading producer of wind-generated electricity in t ...
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Olivier De Schutter
Olivier De Schutter (born 20 July 1968) is a Belgian legal scholar specialising in economic and social rights, with a specific focus on the role of social rights in the fight against poverty and their status in European integration: he coined the term "the Social Constitution of Europe" to describe the role of the European Social Charter on the European continent. He served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008 to 2014. He is a Professor of international human rights law, European Union law and legal theory at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, as well as at the College of Europe and at Sciences Po in Paris. He was a regular visiting professor at Columbia University between 2008 and 2012 and has regularly contributed to the American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is the first chair of the Belgian Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development and he c ...
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Commodity
In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who Production (economics), produced them. The price of a commodity good is typically determined as a function of its market as a whole: well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot market, spot and derivative (finance), derivative markets. The wide availability of commodities typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (such as brand, brand name) other than price. Most commodities are raw materials, basic resources, agriculture, agricultural, or mining products, such as iron ore, sugar, or grains like rice and wheat. Commodities can also be mass-produced unspecialized products such as chemical substance, chemicals and computer memory. Popular commodities include Petroleum, crude ...
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Investment Bank
Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broader viewpoint, an investment can be defined as "to tailor the pattern of expenditure and receipt of resources to optimise the desirable patterns of these flows". When expenditures and receipts are defined in terms of money, then the net monetary receipt in a time period is termed cash flow, while money received in a series of several time periods is termed cash flow stream. In finance, the purpose of investing is to generate a return on the invested asset. The return may consist of a capital gain (profit) or loss, realised if the investment is sold, unrealised capital appreciation (or depreciation) if yet unsold. It may also consist of periodic income such as dividends, interest, or rental income. The return may also include currency gains ...
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Pension Fund
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides pension, retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the world's largest public pension fund. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about USD$6 Trillion (short scale), trillion in assets. In 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that pension funds worldwide hold over $33.9 trillion in assets (and were expected to grow to more than $56 trillion by 2020), the largest for any category of institutional investor ahead of mutual funds, insurance companies, currency reserves, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, or private equity. Classifications Open vs. closed pension fund ...
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Hedge Fund
A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and insulate returns from beta (finance), market risk. Among these portfolio (finance), portfolio techniques are short (finance), short selling and the use of leverage (finance), leverage and derivative (finance), derivative instruments. In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. Hedge funds are considered alternative investments. Their ability to use leverage and more complex investment techniques distinguishes them from regulated investment funds available to the retail market, commonly known as mutual funds and Exchange-traded fund, ETFs. They are also considered distinct from private-equity fund, private equity funds and other similar cl ...
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London School Of Economics And Political Science
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public university, public research university in London, England, and a member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield, Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas and George Bernard Shaw, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and offered its first degree programmes under the auspices of the university in 1901. LSE began awarding degrees in its own name in 2008, prior to which it awarded degrees of the University of London. It became a university in its own right within the University of London in 2022. LSE is located in the London Borough of Camden and City of Westminster, Westminster, Central London, near the boundary between Covent Garden and Holborn. The area is historically known as Clare Market. As of 2023/24, LSE had jus ...
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National University Of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University. The university offers degree programmes in disciplines at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including in the sciences, medicine and dentistry, design and environment, law, arts and social sciences, engineering, business, computing, and music. NUS's main campus is located adjacent to the Kent Ridge subzone of Queenstown, Singapore, Queenstown. The Duke–NUS Medical School is located at the Outram, Singapore, Outram campus. The Bukit Timah campus houses the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Faculty of Law and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. NUS's affiliated faculty members and researchers include one Nobel Prize laureate, one Tang Prize laureate, and one Vautrin Lud Prize, Vautrin Lud laureate. History ...
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