> The Onion Futures Act is a United States law banning the trading of futures contracts on onions as well as "motion picture box office receipts".
> In 1955, two onion traders, Sam Siegel and Vincent Kosuga, cornered the onion futures market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The resulting regulatory actions led to the passing of the act on August 28, 1958. As of January 2020, it remains in effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act
> The president of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, E.B. Harris, lobbied hard against the bill. Harris described it as "Burning down the barn to find a suspected rat". The measure was passed, however, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill in August 1958. Thus, onions were excluded from the definition of "commodity" in the Commodity Exchange Act.
It is a literally textbook example in why banning derivatives is unlikely to be the easy fix some imagine for market failures.
Also, here's an interesting story: https://www.ft.com/content/6a09e4a6-655a-11ea-b3f3-fe4680ea6...
> French industrials group Air Liquide is selling its Schülke unit, whose products range from the alcohol-based hand rubs that have become a hot commodity since the outbreak started, to hospital disinfectants and industrial cleaning products. > > It is asking would-be buyers to offer a higher sum than it first envisaged when the sale process began last year, according to people familiar with the situation, reflecting what one person called the “coronavirus effect”.
Of course, the reason the business might be worth more is because it's going to make higher profits. In theory Air Liquide could cut prices to ensure its profits stayed the same. In fact, not doing so means they're profiting off Covid-19, right?
Which I guess suggests the real problem with what this guy did is scale; he only had a few thousand bottles. If he'd only realised he should have been buying a factory!
https://www.npr.org/2015/10/22/450769853/the-great-onion-cor...