Please indulge me for a moment and watch this clip from BBC News…
Did it scare you? It certainly scared me.
I wasn’t really too surprised. It has been obvious that Governments have been living in fear of markets for years. The lack of regulation, especially after the global economic crisis in 2008, made that abundantly clear.
Money, and the acquisition of it, is the number one goal in our society and no-one has the ability to make (or indeed lose) money like the financial institutions. These are corporations making money in huge amounts. To the majority of us, who do not understand the instruments of this world, it can seem to be made out of thin air. As unbelievable as fairy-tales of golden geese or magical never-ending pots of gold.
What really really frightened me though was that an well-dressed intelligent man could be so wrapped up in his own wealth creation that he would, on BBC television, openly declare that he dreamed of a recession because of the money-making opportunities it would bring.
That he has no regard for lives ruined, jobs lost, houses repossessed, whole sectors of society destroyed just so he could have more money, and to what end? Buy a bigger car, watch, have an even more expensive holiday, destroy the environment some more jetting around the world. Acquire more material possessions?
Ed Balls said in his Labour Party Conference Speak yesterday “It wasn’t too many police officers or nurses or teachers here in Britain that bankrupted Lehman Brothers in New York.” But we are all paying the price, the very heavy price for it on our families, and will be for many years to come.
Not one banker or trader has been prosecuted for the global economic crisis on 2008. Don’t forget that was caused by financial institutions selling mortgages to people in America, who were not credit worthy and would default on loans they couldn’t afford in the first place. But these mortgages were actively mis-sold to the sub-prime market because, when packaged up into another form of bundled up debt they became even more lucrative to the markets. To my mind it is the financial equivalent of feeding cows’ brains back to cows. I am sure everyone reading this will remember the horrors of BSE. and how terrible that was for British farming and our beef trade with the rest of the world.
We can not let these bankers and traders put us into another recession just because they want to make money. We need to rise up, be united and say no, this is morally reprehensible. We have had enough. Only if we are all united will the government start to take notice and will seriously look at the issue of regulating the markets.
At the same time as this trader was speaking on BBC, protesters have been occupying Wall Street demanding that our current financial institutions change. Have you heard about it on the news? No there has been no coverage at all. This is a disgrace. Why is this story not being covered? The protesters have been there for two weeks now.
On the subject of what is really going on in the financial markets and who really has the control and the power of countries’ economies and how abhorrent it all really is, I can not recommend highly enough Sebastian Faulks’ One Week in December . We all need to wake up and reclaim our lives and our financial security back from these parasites. Before it is too late.
Another great piece of work Natalie and yes ohhhhhhhhhhhsssooooooooooo scary
xxx
Here here.
That man was just like the character in “one week in December” wasn’t he? Unbelievable!
Well done for saying this. Everyone should watch that video and read your words.
Evil traders – How dare they, with all this wanting to make money. They should be publicly whipped and made to wear sackcloth on Fridays.
Actually that guy went viral on Monday, but some of the stuff he says is a bit weird. I don’t think he’s a real trader (remember the beeb do have a penchant for the wrong experts).
With regard to the financial crisis, we can always find someone else to blame, but how many people do you know who had bigger debts and/or mortgages by 2007 than they’d had in 1999 ?
Pretty much everyone who could borrow it I think…..
Here’s some more about our new friend, Mr. Rastani…
{http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilylambert/2011/09/27/trader-or-prankster-we-called-alessio-rastani-and-asked/}
I saw that interview yesterday afternoon. but it was confirmed yesterday that he is for real. Have you looked at his twitter and facebook accounts? he has been on twitter for I think 2 years.
No one is saying don’t make money but don’t be dreaming of making money out of other people’s misery.
mmmm if that is really your justification for reasons for the global economic crisis in 2008 that everyone had more personal debt so we are all complicit. Really?? Really?? is it not possible that there was so much cheap credit around because the banks thought they were on to such a good thing with those credit default swaps or what ever those repackaged bundles were called.
It’s worse than I thought, banks out of their greed and arrogance cause the problem, then take massive taxpayer bail outs, then refuse to take any responsibility, refuse to lower bonus payments and that insidious culture, fight regulation at every turn and then would be quite happy for the whole cycle to continue.
Don’t even get me on the ethics of short selling.
Everyone in the financial sector needs to reenter the real world.
Hmmm. Detect an angry tone to the last reply. Please don’t be angry. I’m not a million miles away from you on this. I agree on post bailout bonuses, insidious culture within banks, and so on. I also think banks should be much more regulated.
However, boom bust cycles are caused by human nature, and are as old as humans – so yes, we are all complicit to a degree. Banks just amplify the issue by lending more when times are good and taking it away when times are bad. Blaming moneylenders for busts are as old as busts.
If there was a more worthwhile cause to go after in the current environment, I’d say it was growing inequality. Since the early eighties (collapse of communism actually – wonder if it’s a coincidence), ALL societies have been becoming more unequal with a smaller portion of the population holding a greater proportion of society’s wealth.
Few people earning over say £5mil in the UK pay 50% tax +NI. Most pay more like 20% GCT, many pay nothing at all, earning the money offshore. A progressive tax on much higher incomes – with a much higher threshold for people earning less. And get rid of CGT – Just tax income – however it’s derived.
Whilst it may be satisfying to beat up all those Lamborghini-owning, irritatingly self possessed, city people, it’s just another prejudicial stereotype. The reality is far more complex.
SirAurf
I am a bit angry about the mess the whole world is in at the moment and when you read about Hedge Funds “betting” (that was the word in the article) against the French Banks last week and are going to be doing the same with Greek bonds.. and as the article says .. what is good for hedge funds isn’t necessarily good for Greece.
what chance is there to sort the mess out?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/business/global/hedge-funds-betting-on-lowly-greek-bonds.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Absolutely with you there about inequality and it is getting worse. Ordinary folk need to rise up.. I really believe there needs to be some sort of revolution, we are being shafted.
I just agree with the public whipping bit. Where can I buy a ticket?
With regard to the lack of coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protest (at the time; it’s had a bit more since) I thought you might like this piece by Paul Krugman, the US economist and op-ed writer for the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/opinion/krugman-confronting-the-malefactors.html?_r=1
Incidentally VSP stands for Very Serious Person – a theme that runs through his blog about politicians, experts and administrators who consistently get things completely wrong, but wear the right clothes, say what “Sensible People” are saying at the time, and are generally an expensive waste of space.
I did like that article.. thank you very much.