華盛頓的困境

????聯邦能源監管委員會上周在年度執法報告中寫道，2011年以及在可預見的未來，它的首要關注點是“欺詐和市場操縱”。今年，該委員會的執法辦公室了結了多少案子？9宗。民事罰款總額約570萬美元。這是什么概念呢？要知道僅僅感恩節這一周，美國人的加油支出就超過了2億美元。

????在西弗吉尼亞州民主黨參議院約翰?D?洛克菲勒四世（洛克菲勒四世正巧是石油大亨約翰?D?洛克菲勒的曾孫）的敦促下，聯邦貿易委員會也自行啟動了對油氣市場的調查，希望能查清“石油開采商、煉油廠、運輸企業、銷售企業、實物/金融交易商或其他各方”有沒有違反該委員會的規定——特別是其《禁止操縱能源市場條例》（Prohibition of Energy Market Manipulation Rule）。坎特維爾最近在參議院聽證會上提問時，就特別關注了聯邦貿易委員會積極貫徹《禁止操縱能源市場條例》的力度。《財富》雜志（Fortune）獨家獲悉了這些尚未公開的問題。

????聯邦貿易委員會尚未宣布任何逮捕行動，可能要一直等到結案才會采取相關行動。司法部也一樣，對此沒有時間表。而且，聯邦貿易委員會強調，它通常不會披露調查的存在，但這次洛克菲勒議員則選擇將之公布于眾。

????與此同時，美國商品期貨交易委員會總是如此“全力”推進調查，它會調查上幾年直到國會坐不住了，嚷嚷要求公布結果。（現成的一個例子就是2007年啟動的油價投機大調查，拖了好幾年后最終莫名其妙地不了了之。該委員會內部的一位高級別官員表示，“由于政治意愿不強”，調查根本就沒有做出最終的結論。）

????多德-弗蘭克法案（Dodd-Frank Act）令事情出現了類似的轉機。國會要求美國商品期貨交易委員會在今年1月前通過新的限制石油和其他大宗商品過度交易的條例。雖然有多年的市場數據可調取，美國商品期貨交易委員會仍然要求參議員們能給出更多的時間以便進一步研究。

????保護消費者是美國商品期貨交易委員會的職責之一，但它更擔心傷害華爾街。委員們公開表示，擔心有“控制狂”或“扼殺”市場競爭之嫌（這種可能性似乎沒有：今年以來，美國僅原油合同交易額就有幾萬億美元，遠遠高于全球約8,900萬桶/天的石油實物供應量。）扼殺是這個市場最不需要擔心的事情。

????10月末，在超過最后期限近十個月后，美國商品期貨交易委員會終于制定了華爾街公司在石油等戰略性商品市場上可建立的頭寸上限。兩位委員在對這一舉措進行的投票中投了反對票，理由是它逾越了美國商品期貨交易委員會的法定權限。

????然而，另外幾位參議員認為這一舉措還遠遠不夠。佛蒙特州參議員伯納德?桑德斯（美國參議院歷史上任期最長的一位獨立參議員）希望通過他所謂的《立即終止過度石油投機議案》（End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act）能擴大這一做法。這一議案由包括洛克菲勒在內的8位民主黨參議院提出，目的是遏制桑德斯認為即便是按照美國商品期貨交易委員會最新的條例來衡量依然顯得過度的石油投機行為。8月份，桑德斯備受指責，因為他披露了美國商品期貨交易委員會的相關數據。數據顯示：2008年7月油價處于歷史高點近150美元/桶時，整個市場完全被高盛（Goldman Sachs）、摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）、摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）和隱秘的瑞士石油交易公司Vitol等大投機商主導。

????“我們當前最大的一個問題，”桑德斯最近寫道，“是美國人能否通過國會遏制住華爾街貪婪、魯莽而非法的行為，以及華爾街是否會繼續擾亂我們國家的經濟和工薪家庭的生活秩序。”

Washington's quandary

????For its part, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed last week in its annual enforcement report that its top priority in 2011 – and for the foreseeable future – is "fraud and market manipulation." How many cases were settled this year by its Office of Enforcement? Nine. That represents approximately $5.7 million in civil penalties. Just to put that into perspective, the tab at the pump for Americans over the Thanksgiving week came to more than $200 million.

????At the urging of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the Democrat from West Virginia who, incidentally, is the great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, the Federal Trade Commission came forth with its own investigation into the oil and gas market, which seeks to determine whether "oil producers, refiners, transporters, marketers, physical financial traders or others" are violating the commission's rules – particularly, its Prohibition of Energy Market Manipulation Rule. Cantwell's questions during the recent Senate hearing paid special attention to the FTC's efforts to aggressively enforce that rule. The questions, exclusively reviewed by Fortune, have yet to be made public.

????According to the FTC, no apprehensions have been announced and probably won't be until the matter is concluded. As with the DOJ, there is no timetable for that. Further, the commission emphasizes that it usually does not disclose the existence of investigations, but in this case Rockefeller chose to make it public.

????Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is often so gung-ho about investigating an issue, it will probe it for years before Congress gets restless and begins clamoring for results. (A case in point: the grand investigation into oil speculation launched in 2007 that dragged on for years before being mysteriously discontinued. A high-ranking official inside the agency says the probe was never finalized "due to a lack of political appetite.")

????The Dodd-Frank Act led to a similar turn of events. Congress mandated that the CFTC approve new rules to limit overzealous trading in oil and other commodities by January of this year. Even with years of market data to draw from, the CFTC urged senators to give it more time to conduct additional studies.

????Protecting consumers is part of the CFTC's job, but it was more worried about hurting Wall Street. Commissioners openly fretted about appearing to be "control freaks" or "stifling" market competition. (This seems unlikely: In the year to date, the U.S. traded several trillion dollars of crude oil contracts alone, a number that dwarfs the amount of physical oil actually available on a global basis, which is about 89 million barrels a day.) Stifling is just about the last thing this market needs to be worried about.

????After overshooting its deadline by nearly 10 months, the CFTC in late October finally imposed limits on the size of the positions Wall Street firms are allowed to take in oil and other highly strategic commodities markets. Two of the five CFTC commissioners voting on the measure opposed it, stating that it overstepped the CFTC's statutory authority.

????Several senators felt the measure did not go far enough. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the longest-running Independent in the history of the U.S. Senate, aims to expand on the rule through legislation he dubs the "End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act." The bill, co-sponsored by eight Democratic senators, including Rockefeller, proposes to rein in what Sanders believes is too much oil speculation, even in light of the new CFTC rules. In August, Sanders drew criticism for leaking CFTC data showing that at the time of oil's record high near $150 a barrel in July 2008, the market was dominated by big speculative players such as Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), J.P. Morgan (JPM) and the secretive Swiss oil-trading firm Vitol.

????"One of the great questions of our time," Sanders recently wrote, "Is whether the American people, through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak havoc on our economy and the lives of working families."