The elephant in the Pit

... is Big Brother. No, not TS, but the US Govt. Which does not really seem to be standing for We The People (of the Pit). It is good to know the ways of our adversaries as we engage them on the front lines. Thanks to Diem for pointing the way to the free markets advocacy group in the previous post, although I am not a huge fan of mixing poker in with trading futures.

Getting back to Big Brother, Jason Ruspini has an interesting post on the benefit of tax futures, and why it will not happen while Congress is as Congress currently does:

I was encouraged by the comments when Tyler Cowen linked to my last post on tax futures. There is, unfortunately, an obstacle that wasn't touched on. Tax futures would have a tremendous hedging utility and would therefore likely fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC.

For now, I suspect - well, know - that the CFTC will not approve contracts tied to acts of Congress. The question then becomes: In which countries would tax futures be most feasible from a political and regulatory standpoint?

I myself was happy to leave a comment on the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act page of WashingtonWatch a few months ago. Go check out that site, too.