Commodity assets managed by financial investors have increased over the past decade from less than $10 billion to $404 billion in June 2012. Loose monetary policies of the developed world, most notably quantitative easing (QE) in the United States, along with the unwillingness of governments to regulate participants in commodity markets, have continued to draw excess funds to the commodities markets due to the markets’ comparatively high expected returns. The presence of financial investors, betting on an increase in fundamental prices due to supply shortages, serves to exaggerate price increases.