And without markets they have no recourse but to go long. With markets and their middlemen (speculators), they can go neutral, reduce their risk, help smooth the macro economy, etc.
Right.
But when the market, oblivious of the fundamentals, drives the prices outside the supply/demand curve’s pricing, then the market can crush the producers and consumers.
Before the CFMA in 2000, we had commodities markets. The markets worked just fine. The energy futures markets worked just fine prior to 2000, and prior to ICE, et al.
People who want to say that eliminating ICE or the CFMA would bring about dire consequences are talking through their hats. We’d just return to a pre-2000 world, when energy futures were regulated. No big deal. The markets worked then. There were speculators, but their position sizes were limited.