{"id":8773,"date":"2018-07-25T08:52:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/?p=8773"},"modified":"2018-07-25T08:52:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T12:52:10","slug":"cftc-leaders-respond-to-criticisms-raised-in-vatican-document","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/2018\/07\/25\/cftc-leaders-respond-to-criticisms-raised-in-vatican-document\/","title":{"rendered":"CFTC Leaders Respond to Criticisms Raised in Vatican Document"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo and CFTC Chief Economist Bruce Tuckman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/SpeechesTestimony\/giancarloresponsetobollettino072118\">responded<\/a> to criticisms outlined in the <em><span style=\"font-size: large\">Bollettino, <\/span><\/em>a document released by the Vatican that &#8220;lays out ethical foundations to govern economic and financial systems.&#8221; The CFTC leaders defended derivatives and credit default swaps (&#8220;CDS&#8221;), which were subject to particular scrutiny in the document.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Tuckman emphasized that it is important to recognize the &#8220;social utility&#8221; of derivatives. They asserted that derivatives products help to &#8220;moderate price, supply and other commercial risks&#8221; which can facilitate economic growth and prosperity. Additionally, they highlighted that derivatives can be tools for risk transfer and mitigation, particularly in agricultural communities.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Tuckman argued that in order for agricultural exporting nations to help &#8220;feed the world&#8217;s growing population,&#8221; they must have support from derivatives markets. They added that derivatives markets play a significant role in aiding return on capital, which they said supports investments in various farming technologies that are necessary to meet the global food demand.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Tuckman focused on three specific issues related to CDS: (i) information asymmetries, (ii) speculation and (iii) profiting from the suffering of others. They argued that information asymmetry is an inherent aspect of a healthy financial system and that speculation contributes to the &#8220;generation of information and the dissemination of that information to the public at large.&#8221; They stated that proper uses of CDS &#8220;require a counterparty on the other side of the trade,&#8221; and speculators fulfill this role. Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Tuckman further asserted that research shows that CDS trading on sovereign bonds (i) &#8220;lowers countries\u2019 cost of debt and increases the information efficiency of their bond markets&#8221; and (ii) acts as &#8220;an important check on poor fiscal management.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Tuckman concluded that derivatives &#8220;help stabilize the price of global commodities and financial rates in a manner that is particularly beneficial to the world&#8217;s poor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lofchie Comment: It is important that participants in\u00a0our capitalist\u00a0system be willing to step up to its defense,\u00a0educate\u00a0as to\u00a0its social benefits and engage with its well-intentioned critics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo and CFTC Chief Economist Bruce Tuckman responded to criticisms outlined in the Bollettino, a document released by the Vatican that &#8220;lays out ethical foundations to govern economic and financial systems.&#8221; The CFTC leaders defended derivatives &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/2018\/07\/25\/cftc-leaders-respond-to-criticisms-raised-in-vatican-document\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-derivatives","category-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8774,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8773\/revisions\/8774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforfinancialstability.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}