This was no allusion to hated financial speculators.
Normally, speculators are spooked by high vacancy rates.
This, they argue, would deter speculators from hoarding empty property and help bring prices down.
Farming concerns, not speculators, are buying most of the land put up for auction.
At this time, the price is not decided by normal consumers and producers but by speculators.
Futures contracts held by speculators were up 12 percent in 2010 through October, with sharp increases in bullish bets on crude oil, copper and silver.
Prosecution appears unlikely, but the chilling effects of the moves on the ability of speculators to call politicians' bluff could be disastrous.
Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive “to damage their opponents.”
America's politicians are not the only ones to have fingered speculators for the feverish rise in the price of oil and other raw materials.
The grants did give new opportunities to many impoverished farmers from the East and Midwest, but much of the land granted under the Homestead Act fell quickly into the hands of speculators.
For the trade to be tempting to speculators, there must be low levels of volatility and large differentials in short-term interest rates to offset the risk of adverse currency moves.
What left and right share in this case is their contempt for big speculators and corporate managers who profit from risky decisions but are protected from failures by 'golden parachutes'.
