This paper was presented at the UNCTAD Public Symposium, The Way Forward, held in Geneva, May 18 to 19, 2009.

This paper reviews one contributing factor to global food and energy price volatility - financial speculation in the commodities futures markets. Futures prices are used as benchmarks for cash prices for commodities and hence effect the price of consumer and industrial goods. Presented here are policy options toward international cooperation for regulating these markets. One of the options would be a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) designed to reduce the volume of intraday trading that is a driver of commodity price volatility.