A recent report* from the OECD analyses the literature, applies its own statistical tests and finds investors not guilty.Technically speaking, the report does not deal with the influence of speculators on commodity markets but with the role of index-tracking funds.
Investors are already jittery about the influence of a U.S. recession on commodity demand, despite talk of an Asian boom, and it might be a while before these companies get another chance to bulk up.
But China's biggest impact on Canada has been the influence of its headlong economic growth on commodity prices.
Meanwhile genetically-altered commodity crops – and thus the influence of patent protection – have spread to become overwhelmingly dominant.
Inflation has been underpinned by the indirect effects of higher commodity prices, rising rents and the influence of stable inflation expectations on prices and wages.
Most commodities were once priced in fractions, reflecting the influence of the Spanish empire on global trade in the 17th century.
As such players have grown, the influence of commercial traders, like food producers and airlines that use the commodities markets to hedge against price swings, has declined.
Since then, the confectionery industry has consolidated and commodities markets have gotten increasingly volatile, while the influence of cacao farmers has dropped.
Some studies have depicted the epochal character of transitions from societies where commodity shortages exist to those of commodity overproduction and from closed societies to open societies under the influence of globalisation.
The net effect of these changes would be to strengthen the influence of mainly western TNCs on government policy, and weaken public health's ability to protect populations against unhealthy commodities.
