While tech giants like Amazon and Google have drawn much of the Biden administration’s antitrust attention, a more significant — but as yet ignored — antitrust problem is flying under the radar in the less obviously sexy area of derivatives trading.
While derivatives may seem like the kind of thing that only matters to Wall Street fat cats, futures trading is, in fact, how everyone from farmers to retailers to insurance companies hedge their risks. By spreading risk, derivatives lower the costs of risk taking and thus are the secret ingredient that has driven a great deal of recent American prosperity. Ensuring derivatives markets are competitive, innovative, and secure should be a national priority. Recently, much derivatives trading, especially in new asset classes, has moved overseas.
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