6. Seen from today's level of grift and fraud, this has a certain charming-rascal aura to it. You could see this as a Coen Brothers, funny heist movie. But at the time, people were pissed and there was a bunch of political uproar to do something to prevent this from happening again.
7. And so, then Representative, not-yet-President Gerald Ford introduced the Onion Futures Act to ban the trading of any onion futures. Eisenhower signed it into law in 1958. To this day, onions are the only agricultural commodity for which you cannot buy or sell futures contracts.
8. Is it a good law? Objectively, no. Does it make much difference in our life? Again, no. But is it a dead letter law? No. You can trade corn futures, soy futures, wheat futures. But thou shalt not trade onion futures.
9. And so back to the question those middle school students asked: why do we keep those laws on the books? Because politically, no one really cares. No one is going to win an election based on their commitment to repeal this law. But you might lose one if you dedicated your time to that effort.
10. But it is charming and amusing to see these bunch of students from U Chicago who have decided to move the Onion Overton window with their (mass?) mobilization outside the CME this week. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Desd3z7Tu_Q/
11. And if nothing else, perhaps a 7th grader at LaGrange Highlands will someday end up going to U Chicago and standing on the shoulders of the giants who have come before to build the social movement that builds the political will to repeal this law. :) /fin