What is the “Enron Loophole?” It was an amendment in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 which allowed electronic futures trading to be deregulated. This allows speculators and traders to operate without oversight, or “in the dark” as the term goes.
Congress recently tried to close the loophole with an amendment to the recent Farm Appropriations bill, but President Bush vetoed it, and the senate failed to get the 60% needed to override a Republican filibuster. Thus, the loophole remains, and the speculators keep running up the price of oil without any reigns what so ever.
Countdown with Keith Olberman explains it better than I can, as well as how John McCain has “flip-flopped” on first his opposition of the loophole in 2002 (“We’re all tainted,” he said then) to his current apparent support to keep the loophole in place (he voted against the Farm Appropriations bill, and is proposing solutions other than closing said loophole):
The “Enron Loophole” must be closed. There must be transparency in the online futures markets. Say what you will about “gub’ment meddling with markets,” I’d rather have some regulation (mainly transparency) than what is currently happening with no regulation.