{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-on-senate-commodities-report-extremely-disturbing-regulators-must-act", "Merkley on Senate Commodities Report: “Extremely Disturbing,” Regulators Must Act", "2014-11-21", "2014", "2014-11", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Jeff Merkley", "M001176", "www.merkley.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Merkley on Senate Commodities Report: \u201cExtremely Disturbing,\u201d Regulators Must Act \n\t\n\t\n\tFriday, November 21, 2014\n\t\n\tWASHINGTON \u2013 Oregon\u2019s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement after the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report and held hearings finding that Wall Street banks have become heavily involved in the ownership and control of physical commodities, raising the potential for market manipulation. The commodities involved touch nearly every consumer and every corner of the American economy, such as oil, natural gas, and aluminum.\r\n \r\n\u201cThis report is extremely disturbing and raises many questions about why financial regulators were not aggressively investigating and acting on these issues long before now.\r\n\u201cIf a bank owns enough of a commodity to control the supply and demand of a product, and at the same time is profiting from trades on that product, it\u2019s obvious that there\u2019s a massive potential for market manipulation. Now we know it\u2019s not just potential, but reality. As this report reveals, Goldman Sachs manipulated the supply of aluminum at the same time as they were trading it. This type of market manipulation has real costs for our businesses and consumers, and it\u2019s unacceptable. Big banks shouldn\u2019t be able to rig the economic playing field in their favor at the cost of our economy and our middle class families.\r\n\u201cThere are many other alarming details contained in this report, including banks\u2019 extensive involvement in the energy sector and the massive risks that banks\u2019 positions in physical commodities could pose to their own stability and to our economy as a whole. This report should serve as a serious wake-up call to regulators to get our banks out of the oil tanker and aluminum warehouse business and back into the banking business, taking deposits and making loans to families and businesses.\u201d\r\n \r\nMerkley highlighted banks\u2019 involvement in commodities in Oregon in 2012, and earlier this year sent a comment letter to the Fed urging them to close the loopholes that allow banks to own physical commodities.\r\nIn a separate hearing today, Merkley questioned William Dudley, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on whether the Federal Reserve should continue to allow banks to own and control physical commodities. Video of that hearing can be found here.\r\n###\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n     \n\t\n \n\t\n    \n    \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t  \n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n      \n    \n    \n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t  \n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-on-senate-commodities-report-extremely-disturbing-regulators-must-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.470912178978324, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}