Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation
Speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of millions. What does it say about our system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?
The Independent
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Archive for the ‘derivatives’ Category
The Food Bubble
July 3, 2010The Great Game of Greed
October 16, 2008The Great Game of Greed
By Craig Heimbichner
As we wait for Obama and McCain to detail their plans to “fix” the economy, it would be a good time to turn off the propaganda feed into our brains via the media and do a macro-level review of the current economy as a whole.
That sounds daunting, but I don’t mean pulling out a textbook in economics from one of the standard perspectives, but rather taking a fresh look at the sordid show which passes for a financial system, but which is in reality a great gambling game based on usury, greed, exploitation and fraud. To get the proper perspective, imagine that you just landed on this planet and came from a place where benevolence and justice count, and a grounding in reality is considered important.
We are not supposed to think at that level, however, but instead take our thoughts from the headlines and talking media heads. We hear over and over that mortgages are at the bottom of the current crisis. We hear comparatively little of the role of derivatives–hedge funds, options, futures and the rest of it–which are pumped-up speculatives driving a fictitious gambling economy to expand to the greater glory of profit mega-margins: a sort of one-armed bandit that only initiated elites can pull and play with any hope of success. The derivatives game is set up to bounce out small-time players and the field remains open for the major hitters at higher levels—that is, for the feeders and front men for the economic wizards of the Cryptocracy itself.
Part of the roots of this illusory game are due to the surrender in the United States to banksters in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve, which shifted power over money completely into the hands of a cabal of chortling millionaires. But the “creature of Jekyll Island” known as The Fed is not the originator of the exploitive basis of the economy, and we note that usury—loaning at interest—had been around a long time prior to that point. Usury is currently a given in the modern world, whereas several major civilizations of old had condemned and forbidden it as a form of injustice.
The economy in play is a gigantic bubble of fraud based on assigned numbers, not on real value tied to real goods and services. Prices are driven by speculators—gamblers—and the average hard-working man or woman has zero input into this monstrous and alien arena.
But gaming always has its risks. Insiders have long profited while most of the world plunges down the financial tubes of periodic “bad times,” and the attempt to pull off further profit and power is going on right now, including new twists of consolidation between The Fed, the U.S. government, and “United Europe.” Powerful gamblers are angling for greater control as they pose as the rescue crew; the masonic jest is worthy of a grand swindler like Horatio Bottomley.
But not to worry: Obama and McCain support the “bailout” (i.e, pending rape of the taxpayer) and even have other ideas! We can all relax, can’t we? After all, with a few tweaks, the economy might bounce back eventually, giving those on the lower tier a return to working themselves into the ground while the upper echelon runs its gambling and power plays, plundering and raping like the pirates in business suits that they are.
However, the risks inherent in the Great Game might spell blowback this time, and the entire fraudulent economy might tip the scales past the point of crypto control. Will it happen? Stay tuned—but not to the propaganda—and not to the “read my lips” statements of either would-be POTUS. Remember, it’s a magic show, and the rule is always simple: find the hand that is not moving. It’s usually the one inside the bloody glove.
Originally published here:
http://www.paranoidsonline.com/2008/10/great-game-of-greed.html
Craig Heimbichner is the author of Blood on the Altar
It’s Not Trillions of Dollars of Mortgages in Default Causing this Financial Meltdown
October 10, 2008The 60-some trillion dollar derivatives racket which triggered the present financial catastrophe, and subsequently, an antithesis in the form of a multi-trillion dollar extortion paid to Wall Street and European usurers and speculators is explained here:
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-am-for-free-market-but-if-us.html
It’s Not Trillions of Dollars of Mortgages in Default Causing this Financial Meltdown
October 10, 2008The 60-some trillion dollar derivatives racket which triggered the present financial catastrophe, and subsequently, an antithesis in the form of a multi-trillion dollar extortion paid to Wall Street and European usurers and speculators is explained here:
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-am-for-free-market-but-if-us.html
