However, a large part of this growth came not from "solid" investors those interested in the business ventures they funded but from speculative "wheeler-dealers" who would manipulate prices to profiteer from their holdings or, just as often, from those of others.
A stand-alone profitability test can distinguish transactions that are consistent with workably competitive markets from transactions that serve no economic purpose other than to manipulate prices and profit from other financial contracts.
But Mr. Richardson said, "I believe I've convinced them that it's for emergency purposes only, and that we have no intentions of using it to manipulate prices or discourage them from increasing their inventories".
Futures markets, for example, were created to allow farmers to hedge themselves against fluctuations in crop prices, and were traditionally regulated to prevent investors from amassing holdings large enough to manipulate prices.
It appears from the individual brand data in this paper, and from cigarette brand prices reported elsewhere, 16 that manufacturers manipulate prices across their product range to minimise the impact of tax increases on the lowest price products.
We are not trying to manipulate prices".
Earlier this week, a state Senate committee heard testimony from a former official for Gas Daily, an industry trade journal, that gas traders would submit false information to manipulate prices.
BLOOMBERG NEWS A Trader's Guide to Manipulating Oil Prices | One oil trader, Halis Bektas, described to The Wall Street Journal one strategy he has used to manipulate prices.
In the report, Enron came in for severe criticism from the commission, which said its strategies "involved deceit, including the provision of false information" in an attempt to manipulate prices.
That allows them to manipulate prices, and to retain their grip on the fractious OPEC cartel.
