Are commodities traders running the world?  Kate Kelly has written a new book about them:  The Secret Club that Runs the World.

Nestled deep in the towers of banking and finance are the commodities traders who spend their days gambling with oil, gold and grain contracts.  Their astonishing wealth has been created in near obscurity, but if the individuals in the commodities boom have gone largely unnoticed, their impact has not. Prices of raw materials have exploded.  Are the big traders hiking up the cost of petrol, food, and essentials bought by people around the world? How did such immense power end up in the hands of a few?  The Commodities Futures Trading Commission has been trying to cap the number of speculators, but they have not been successful, largely because there is debate on whether or not speculation is good.  Dodd Frank limits positions.  CFTC has tried to impose them.  In the meanwhile, people who use gas can be hurt.