Below are three posters from approximately 1974 when the CME did an ad campaign mocking communist countries. I can recall seeing one mocking Yugoslavia in an office but I haven't seen it again. If anyone has a copy, please submit it!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwlFcZgVze5j__W5DyT1OBc9zZ6Wp8D-eYJz8ZmNsTawss8EHlQrUWxi0lwTXllA9yg0urbbSC5qbHux55nkPCnZuAZc1HOchk4WNoYGJIIUDbTSujBDLEivwS2pZk1WPNRna4qjDR9CY/s400/cmebeijing1.jpg)
How come there's no Peking Duck Exchange? Difference of opinion - openly aired - is as essential to a free economy as it is to a free society. That's why great commodity exchanges can flourish in this country and not in the People's Republic of China. You can't have free markets in a regimented society. And you can't have regimented markets in a free society.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR0U_pI7mCN1pO_qJSYsHsyVJeqdRC3S2y0XE7ZMrzVA4sojdZKo5_hGX3pWce6R18k1N77byy3Zx1LH-6EP-BvUfIN2OZbnVfWw8SzClMlYKNBj9xu8pftDqdkmNH6k35c0cWLgyDoQs/s400/cmehavana.jpg)
How come there's no Havana Cigar Exchange? It just wouldn't work. A commodity futures market such as those that flourish in the United States and other free countries simply can't operate in a highly regulated economy. Free markets - or controlled? When you get right down to it, that's probably the single biggest difference between their way and ours. Except, of course, for the standard of living.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDP1NIZnz6ajFCJFKy2E9Hn5rBq6qKJx2JnCR_WIb-UOSIHU7lgSIYZWEQtRunv5ncvuOrcGq11UhTp6tfKOCU1bCTWGYLLDahOoyipTa1T6y7D62xmTazQgV0Cz9qOt-x3HeZCqWZ4fg/s400/cmemoscow.jpg)
How come there's no Moscow Mercantile Exchange? Millions of potatoes, cabbage and other commodities change hands in the U.S.S.R. every year, but not a ruble's worth is traded on any futures market. In a regulated economy, the price of a head of cabbage is exactly what the government says it is - no more, no less. Does their system work? Apparently. Does it work as well as ours? You've got to be kidding.