The truce between politicians and the futures markets is over after less than a year. Hostilities were reopened by Gary Gensler, new chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, when he announced on July 7 a consultation on whether the CFTC should set its own position limits for all commodities trading, as it does already for agricultural products. How hedge exemptions are awarded will also be reviewed. Market leaders, most of whom have been scrupulously politically correct whenever the regulators said something during the past 10 months of financial nightmare, took the gloves off and hit back. Interviewed on Fox News, Terry Duffy, chairman of CME Group, said he thought critics of the market were confusing manipulation with speculation. He suggested the regulators should look first at the OTC markets, where big bets can be made without limits, or they would risk driving business off the regulated exchanges into “dark...