FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2011

CONTACT: John Carey at 202-466-1854
john@ourfinancialsecurity.org

*** Conference Call Briefing ***

Local Organizations Release New Report, Call on Regulators to Stop Speculation Now

Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) will host a conference call with reporters and bloggers Today at 2:00 PM EDT to release a report entitled “How Wall Street Speculation is Driving Up Gasoline Prices Today” by Robert Pollin and James Heintz of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

“This is a straightforward analysis, showing that a big chunk of what all of us are paying at the pump for gasoline today is going straight into the pockets of Wall Street speculators. The good news is that the policy framework is in place to do something about it. The new Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Law gives the administration the power to rein in the very kind of speculative excesses that are at play here. The key is to push the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to exercise its authority,” said Robert Pollin.

WHO:

Robert Pollin is the Director of the Political Economy Research Institute, and Professor of Economics, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

David Kane is an Associate for Latin America and Economic Justice with Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. He served for nine and a half years as a Maryknoll lay missioner in Joao Pessoa, Brazil where he worked with recyclers in city dumps helping them to form workers’ associations and cooperatives.

Prish Hardisson, a local participant at the Orlando action

Replay Instructions:

The call lasted 42 minutes and it was recorded so you can listen to it here:

605-477-2199
133748#

Ignore the prompt about a reference number and simply hit # to listen to latest recording.

Hit “1” to rewind 30 seconds, “2” to fast forward 30 seconds and “5” to pause/resume playback.

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