Back to J. M. Keynes in Regulating International Commodity Markets: An Extended Note on the «Transparency Agenda»

Abstract

In this paper weak and strong forms of global governance of raw materials markets are compared. This is done by comparing the «transparency agenda» with the «structural reform agenda». John Maynard Keynes has worked for decades academically on commodity markets, on speculation and storage, on forward markets and buffer stocks etc., but he has also practised commercial trading activity on various commodity markets, and he has written and/or influenced the Post-World War Two ICU/ITO (International Clearing Union/International Trade Organization) agendas which are containing detailed provisions for estab- lishing a world order on commodity markets. He was very much interested in the relation between price volatility of raw materials and its impacts on global macro- economics, but he was also convinced that appropriate regulations of commodity markets and sectors impact positively on peace and development. He was con- vinced that strong global governance must be based on simple, stable, effective, consensual and binding rules. Now the «transparency agenda» with regard of raw materials is so much debated but it is a rather weak form of global governance, while the «structural reform agenda» represents a rather strong form of global governance of the resources sectors. The «transparency agenda» is dis- cussed in great detail in this paper while the «structural reform agenda» is con- sidered in the Conclusions and Outlook section but needs further elaboration in a follow-up paper.