This was broadcast on the BBC this morning.
I think it says all you need to know about why the City has to be put when and truly back in its box.
This is amorality gone mad:
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Absolutely disgusting. Screw everyone else i’ll be fine. And no not everyone will make money if the whole market is short sold
Despite the unsavoury attitude, my concern is whether he is right – what are we supposed to do with savings to ensure they’re not decimated in the coming months or years?
Oh there is that risk
It’s why I’ve said we should nationalise banks
And the trolls have objected
Now guess whose side they’re on?
GS is down 35% over one year, so domination is not what it used to be.
Check out their pay packets, no problems there.
And this is a representative of the ‘markets’ and ‘investors’ the hapless business reporters are always gushing/fretting over.. The poor girl looked quite traumatised.
Checked him on t’internet – he’s a chancer with a product to sell. Nothing like a nice bit of fear to hurry sales along. Don’t think we should take this too seriously!
Staggering.
If you read the comments after the articles at zerohedge.com these kind of comments are de rigeur. It’s certainly true that extremes meet because these scumbags are pretty much saying what the militia types say: stock your larder, get your guns and ammo, head for the hills…and so on. But remember if Europe suffered any kind of collapse, what happens to China when its largest market tanks, what happens to the oil exporting countries who need our money, what happens to the US which seems to have given up on a quarter of its population, can it afford to give up on its middle class? We’re too interconnected for the scenario this manicured punk says he wants. If it comes to real brinkmanship the rich (individuals, banks, rentiers of all kinds) will have to lose out in a big way because the rest of us can’t (won’t) take much more. I would back Richard (you’ve got my vote anyway) as a calm head in all this but the middle classes will only take so much before they join those who have really lost out and we’ll then get our own Arab Spring.
It’s refreshing to see someone from the other side of the, em, hedge speak so openly and factually.
Nothing he said surprised me in the slightest; I am more surprised by the reaction he caused.
This is the system, this is how it works.
It’s totally rigged, obviously, yet we have allowed ourselves to become complicit in it. We have no one to blame but ourselves for working within the system, albeit without full knowledge of the rules and the inevitability of the system’s collapse.
Part of me is looking forward to the total collapse of this twisted very un-free market (what would Adam Smith say if he perused the economy today? You’ll find the answer in his book “The Theory Of Moral Sentiments”) yet I see beyond that and shudder at the repercussions which I predict will see war again in Europe before this decade is out.
There’s no benign, authoritative leadership in the U.K., the U.S. and particularly in the Eurozone to build a new model. There will, in that vaccuum, ascend malign, authoritarian leadership – whether from the Left or Right or worse: a mix of the worst aspects of both wrapped up in Nationalism.
The past is repeating, and the vast majority of us will suffer the consequences directly or indirectly.
Such a pity.
As you have said before George Osborne seems to be deliberately wrecking the economy. Presumably he and his city friends also have happy dreams of a recession.
This guy is, quite simply, the best argument for the nationalisation of the financial services industry I’ve ever seen or heard.
Unfortunately, The media and prevailing public opinion seems to be dictated by the capitalist mindset. This in my view allows people like the cheerleader for Goldman Sachs to voice his opinions virtually unchallenged thus causing people to panic and feel unable to challenge the status quo with the result being that unfettered laissez faire capitalism is left free to wreak havoc. I think the late Joe Slovo summed it up best when he said ” Communism may have failed the Soviet Union but Capitalism has failed mankind.”
Joe was right on both counts
When Robert Shiller wrote ‘Irrational Exuberance’ (1999, 2nd edition 2005) he looked at all the major US newspapers in the 6 weeks after the 1929 crash to see if the caricature of traders committing suicide by throwing themselves out of windows was reported. He found no evidence of this practice. As Krugman has said, the difference between these guys and Madoff was a couple of procedural steps only.
Despite the unsavoury attitude, my concern is whether he is right — what are we supposed to do with savings to ensure they’re not decimated in the coming months or years?
If his self serving and possibly self fulfilling prophecies are right, you may as well just spend them.
Preferably on rope and lamposts.
As the political class seems to be dedicated to saving the financial system at any cost to the human population, I think a little old fashioned, class based solidarity will be a better bet than individualist financial survivalism.
This graphic is the most realistic depiction of the real problem, the sheer insanity of the financial power bloc, the bloc that is lecturing governments and people on fiscal prudence.
At last the BBC has covered this viewpoint and what surprised me is how naive the presenters must be if they did not realise how some GS traders view the world.
These issues have been covered and exposed by ex-trader Max Keiser on RT (Freeview 85) for some years now and also by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone magazine.
This chap doesn’t work for GS. It seems to me he’s just some idiot out for some Big Brother style celeb exposure.
Or perhaps he missed those in house sessions on ‘spin doctoring’ and lying to the media. Are we all that naive to think that those who work in investment banking really think any differently to the views expressed on BBC?
An organisation who was fined $550m by US regulators for some of the most immoral and unethical business practices you could imagine? (marketing and taking investors money for GS funds comprised largely of mortgage backed securities proposed by Paulson whilst ‘shorting’ at the same time). $840m of which those muppets at RBOS lost with GS and I was forced to ball out.
I’m no financial expert so pardon any deviation from the precise nature of their crime, but people don’t go into investment banking generally to further mankind or because of their deep desire to serve society.
My ex house mate spent 2 years at GS and the representation from the guy above is pretty spot on accordingly to him.
James, I think you are confusing “investment banking” with “trading”. There are plenty of people who work in the industry who find idiots like this very distasteful.
And I have no doubt GS feature some pretty horrible individuals. But this guy is not one of them, and that needs to be made clear.
Fair point
It is equally fair to say that many find it hard to find anything of appeal in investment banking and by default wonder why anyone would want to work in it
Well the long hours and tough environment would put off a lot of people, but i’m sure some of the people who work in risk management relish the prospect of taking on the traders.
And the remuneration isn’t bad either.
I wonder if this was the work of the excellent yes men?
Unfortunately no it wasn’t
The surprise is the reaction of the BBC?. Why the surprise? They should be in the forefront of exposing facts. Where are our forensic journalistic interviewers? Maybe we are seeing a change in awareness at the BBC? (nb. John Palmer’s comment above)
Its not just the individuals (choice), its the system first and foremost (no choice).
So the race to the bottom is nearing. I hope the vast majority will realize that they have been only been promised a place in the lifeboat.I suggest we change direction avoid the rocks, start bailing ourselves out, not the private vested interests and repair the ship.
Plenty of other good links from Golemxiv website.
Arrogant but he says EXACTLY what those in the know already understand.
Governments are just bit part players. Banks and those who control assets/markets/money production control the world. Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad) touches on these concepts that naive people like myself who went to uni, studied hard and they got a job working for a big company don’t seem to get (until recently)……….
BTW, Milliband’s speech today at Labour party conference was very poignant on this very topic (those that don’t actually produce any goods or services but make money for their masters). Financial intermediation seems to be UK’s no. 1 export
That the financial services industry is exempt from the rule of law, ethics and morality has been evident to PSG members for a decade.
These guys do and say whatever they want and everyone considers this to be “normal” behaviour because they are “special”. Trouble is that their “standards” and example are now flooding into all parts of our society and general anarchy is fast approaching.
The finance industry is responsible for most if not ALL of society’s problems.
The worst thing about this is that you can’t say it’s unbelievable. it’s completely believable. the city is so out of control they don’t even need to pretend they’re not – they can just act with pure impunity and arrogance. and our governments are as ruled by them as anyone – if not more so. This guy keeps making me think of the line in Much Ado:
“though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain.”
This man may be obnoxious but unfortunately I believe he is right when he says we can’t leave it to Governments to sort this out. It really would take radical action like (as you say Richard) nationalising some or all of the banks to save our economies – but that is never going to happen.
The ethos of this trader is a clear indication of how bad things are. He can see what’s happening and dreaming of how he can milk the situation. We shouldn’t doubt for one minute that our top UK bankers and traders don’t have the same insight and the same goals.
I seriously believe the only chance we have to turn things around slightly is to make senior bankers responsible for their actions and for what happens on their watch. If we had prosecuted those who were in charge of our failed banks instead of rewarding them – perhaps others might have thought twice about continuing to mug the public. It’s not too late and I hope ‘Operation Hornet’ by Thames Valley police will be the first case to show bankers are subject to the laws of the land.
Richard – My comments above were paraphrased by Max Keiser on RT this morning. It seems that Tax Research UK may reach a long way. He also interviewed an ex-director of GS and she confirmed the reality of the content of the BBC interview.
TR UK has a massive following amongst journalists and decision makers
I admit no one is more surprised than me