Nearly everyone who has called for financial reforms in the aftermath of Black Monday has a common item to recommend: tighter controls on stock-index futures. These relatively new instruments, which enable buyers to place bets on the up-and-down movements of the stock market as a whole, have been accused of intensifying the market's mood swings. But a turf battle has erupted between two Government agencies over which one deserves the right to crack the whip. Should it be the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which presides over futures trading in soybeans and pork bellies, or its sister agency, the Securities and Exchange...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
