Commodity price volatility - G20 presidency conference

1 June 2011 Can Free Markets Still Feed and Power the World? Commodity price volatility has wildly increased in recent years. This has had severe economic and political consequences. Remedies for these problems vary greatly. Some insist primarily on increasing global production; others emphasize extending liberalised trade; others still stress the need to limit the destabilizing effects of derivative markets. But exactly how serious is the production problem? The conference was chaired by Javier Blas (Commodities Editor, Financial Times). Panelists included: - Pierre Jacquet (Chief Economist, Agence Française deDéveloppement, tasked by President Nicolas Sarkozy to report to the G20 summit on commodity price volatility); - Marc Mourre (Managing Director and Vice-chairman for commodities, Morgan Stanley) - Richard Gower (Policy Advisor, Oxfam UK) - Tony Venables (Professor at Oxford University specialised in commodities and ancient chief economist for DFID)