Governments Don’t Rule the World, Goldman Sachs Does, Says Trader
Impending economic Armageddon is apparently a great time to make money. This clip from the BBC will likely leave you as gobsmacked as it did me.
via the International Business Times:
Stock market trader Alessio Rastani commented on the current economic crisis to the BBC on Monday, saying, "Governments don't rule the world" but rather Goldman Sachs does and he "dreams of another recession."
"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani told the BBC. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."
In a candid interview about the Eurozone rescue plan, Rastani said the market is ruled by fear and cannot be saved by the rescue plan.
"They know the stock market is toast," he said. "They know the stock market is finished."
Rastani said most investors are moving their money to places it would be more safe, like U.S. treasuries and the dollar, as they simply do not care about the state of the economy but rather about their own pockets.
"Personally it doesn't matter," he said. "See I'm a trader. I don't really care about that kind of stuff. If I see an opportunity to make money, I go with that."
Rastani continued on to say that most other traders, like him, are not interested in the climate of the economy but only care about making money.
"For most traders...we don't really care that much about how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation," Rastani said. "Our job is to make money from it."
Finding optimism in a grim situation, Rastani said he's been "dreaming" of this moment for years.
"I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession," he said.
UPDATE: Forbes wanted to know if this was a joke or whether Rastani was serious.
Yesterday a purported independent trader going by the name Alessio Rastani appeared on BBC and said some delicious things, namely that he’s been dreaming about a recession and that Goldman Sachs rules the world.
Gawker promptly called him a “sociopath.” My colleague at Forbes said he might be a psychopath. Some people commenting on his Facebook page called him a “muppet,” a “nasty little self-publicist” and a “totally honest bastard who wants to rise to the top of [on] the rest of the world’s misery.” Another suggested that he die.
So they proceeded to interview him. On this matter he said:
FORBES: What do you think of the attention you’ve received since going on TV?
AR: I think it’s overblown. I have no idea why I’m getting this attention. I don’t think it was news. For someone to say what I said, I thought everybody already knew this kind of stuff. The big players of funds rule the world, I don’t think that was news. And what I said about making money from a crash, obviously not everybody knows about that, you can make money from a downward market. A lot of people just got the wrong end of the foot, misunderstood what I was saying. They thought I was joyful or licking my lips about the idea of making money from people’s miseries. That’s probably the way it looked on the video. But if they watch the whole video, what I was really trying to say is people need to educate themselves about how to do that… what I was trying to say was, look, everyone should basically prepare. I was trying to be the good guy. If this market’s going to crash, then you’ve got to prepare yourself. You’ve got to basically learn how to make money from this. Otherwise you’ll be like I did 10 years ago … I made some huge mistakes 10 years ago, during the dotcom crash. I realized it was a falling knife. I was trying to say look guys, it’s not just for traders, it’s for everyone. They should ask me how to do it, I will help you.
UPDATE 2: The Yes Men deny any involvement, issuing this statement:
The Yes Men wish to commend Mr. "Alessio Rastani" for his masterful performance as "trader" on BBC World yesterday. Mr. Rastani's real name is Granwyth Hulatberi; he once appeared on CNBC MarketWrap as a "representative" of the WTO. Well done, Granwyth! You're getting better and better.
Just kidding. We've never heard of Rastani. Despite widespread speculation, he isn't a Yes Man. He's a real trader who is, for one reason or another, being more honest than usual. Who in big banking doesn't bet against the interests of the poor and find themselves massively recompensed—if not by the market, then by humongous taxpayer bailouts? Rastani's approach has been completely mainstream for several years now; we must thank him for putting a human face on it yesterday.
UPDATE 3: Here is Rastani's website url for those stll not convinced this is real:
"Democracy doesn't rule the world-- better get that through you head.
This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that's better left unsaid... "
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Good quote, fastfeat - and very, very true as well.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
certain people
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
Mao Tse-Tung quotes (Chinese stateman, the key figure in China in the 20th century, 1893-1976)
The invisible hand of the free market is about to jam it's fist up our rectums again it sounds like. God forbid our elected leaders let regulators smudge a wee bit of lubricant on it before we're violated.
I wonder if the decimation of millions of families savings right before the election will be enough for Obama to do something serious about Wall Street? Oh wait, that's right, Goldman runs the world which is why Obama works for Geithner and not the other way around.
Also, just a heads up: The next bubble after all our wealth is wiped out is our water supplies:
With those names attached you know they're in it to win it.
Hopefully humanity will one day learn to be humane.
And out old buddy T. Boone Pickens has gobbled up a few water rights, too. He's no dummy.
"For most traders...we don't really care that much about how they're going to fix the economy, how they're going to fix the whole situation," Rastani said. "Our job is to make money from it."
"I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession," he said.
Spoken like a true sociopath.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
Not "everybody," just the ones that are doing it and the ones that have eyes to see what the ones that are doing it are doing. His crime wasn't what he said, his crime was actually saying it.
Nevertheless, come the revolution, I hope there's a pike with his name on it.
...with his head on it.
He reminds me of the Humungus in The Road Warrior - " ...so you think you can find a rig big enough to haul that fat tanker of gas... What a puny plan!!"
job-creating investments because there is no demand for products and services, so they are putting their money in treasury bonds and the u.s. dollar ... but, hey, maybe if we gave them even bigger tax cuts, they would figure "we're so insanely rich now, let's gamble a little of it on this small business here and create a job or two" ... hah!
guys like this dream of another crash, because then they can get rid of the minimum wage and all social welfare spending, and we will all jump at the chance to either pluck chickens or become cannon fodder
written all over it.
Re: This guy - From Daily Kos
UPDATE: Now that it has come out that it was a hoax, i feel disappointed and relived. Relieved that there isn't such a narcissistic guy as he portrayed, and disappointed that there really isn't a trader willing to come to terms and tell the truth - that wouldn't be as profitable as keeping the sheeple complacent.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Peter G. and Andy K. to tell us this guy isn't so bad and that we are intentionally misinterpreting his remarks?
this is a Yes Men gag.
Rastani is a real trader and just saying what he thinks.
But I still want to know where Ricky, Peter G. and Andy K. are. Why aren't they leaping to this guy's defense like they have with the New York cops or the crooked nuke industry operators?
we're all busy using our brains.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Well, that's cool. You can call it whatever you like.
Yep, it's the Yes Men. Good for them. It's almost a shame identifying it - hope it gets lots of play.
This guy is bad. That doesn't mean he's wrong.
What he says is largely true. Well except for the self serving part about wanting people to learn how to make money in a falling market. That's bullshit. If a significant number of traders adopt the same strategy then it doesn't work.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You beet me to it.
I had the same thought.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
The previous phase has been described as “kicking the can down the road” or “extend and pretend.” That is, extend ever-more credit to the banks and finance houses and pretend that the underlying problems have been tackled, until they erupt again. But “extend and pretend” has clearly exhausted itself as rating agencies continuously downgrade sovereign debt, not only of Greece, but Ireland, Spain, Portugal and most recently, Italy.
These downgrades amount to a directive by finance capital to the political parties of the capitalist state that new political mechanisms and forms of rule must be developed through which to extract from the working class the trillions of dollars needed to restore the profits and health of the capitalist financial system, not only in Greece and Europe but internationally. Under conditions where increasingly this cannot be achieved through the parliamentary system, other measures must be found.
Speaking on the decision to hold up payment of the €12 billion final tranche, acting IMF managing director, John Lipsky, who took over after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced out, made clear that no opposition would be tolerated. “The most important steps are those that are going to be taken by the Greek authorities in adopting and implementing the very ambitious program of structural reforms necessary to heal the economy and set the stage for renewed growth.”
http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/pers-j2...
the people in those countries elected government after government to give them what they wanted and, lacking the tax revenue to provide it, they borrowed boat loads of money which they will have a great deal of difficulty of repaying. And because they can't repay the funds they have already borrowed they can't borrow anymore. Now there are more than a few idiots who like to say things like: it is the evil bankers and the IMF that are doing this. The truth is the Greeks themselves put their own tits in the wringer and the IMF, which gets its money from you and me through out respective governments, would be foolish not to require the Greeks to get their act together before lending them more money.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
to hide the debt.
Don't blame the Greeks for wanting more.
In 2001, just after Greece was admitted to Europe’s monetary union, Goldman helped the government quietly borrow billions, people familiar with the transaction said. That deal, hidden from public view because it was treated as a currency trade rather than a loan, helped Athens to meet Europe’s deficit rules while continuing to spend beyond its means...
Don't tell me the banks aren't crooks.
First they ignore us..then they ridicule us..now they are feeding us chicken crap- sign my petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/fda-stop-feed...
www.ickenittlepost.com
If we all defaulted they'd just go out of business.
If people had the balls Icelanders have.
Tip o' the hat to them for telling the banks to fuck off
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
Where does it say banks have the right to ruin economies?
including the Germans and the French knew it. So. What you're telling me is that Greece hired Sachs to hide a pile of their debt so they could accede to the Euro but it isn't the people who hired professional advice to cheat but their advisers who are entirely to blame? I'm not buying that.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I'm not a history buff, and maybe i'll prove it here, but didn't America's biggest tycoons and most famous Rich Guys do it by capitalizing on crisis, depression, and recession? This douche bag is right, there is a lot of money to be made in this climate if you know how to do it...and have enough money to gobble up everything in your path.
I may be wrong. I know there are enough economics and history experts here on CnL to point that out if I am.
You are not wrong. In crisis there is opportunity.
"Buy when there's blood in the streets and sell to the sound of trumpets." --Nathaniel de Rothschild
They also made money through their lawlessness.
far left loon >.<
I'd probably hang out here all day if wasn't for those guys.
In response to bigdaddymalcontent above.
Is it the 21st century yet?
It'll have to be the Three Stooges + Shemp.
Complete self absorbed jerks...This is what the Corporate world did to me when I got sick. http://youtu.be/DhHrIaDML_Q
Will the politicians take their mouths off the traders' dicks long enough to complain that they have been marginalized?
I mean honestly, just because they're whores, doesn't mean the johns should cum on their faces.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
When you've paid for the whore you can do whatever you want.
Or so I'm told.
this has been known since 1848 when the manifesto was published. we had a window of opportunity in the early 1900's before the palmer raids and the first red scare, since then we have had 100 years of empire.
the pukes and the dims will not change anything.
"This entire, life-draining, life-sucking enterprise [western civilization] requires us to tell increasingly absurd lies and convince ourselves they are the truth. Fortunately, this requires little effort on our part because we are awash in cognitive dissonance as we swim in an ocean of cultural denial."
Guy McPherson
denial, it ain't just a river in egypt, it pervades most thought about what it takes to govern. artificial entities, synthetic financial instruments, someone had better get a grip on this situation. you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime.............
andy bichlbaum is an effin chameleon
So he punked the BBC and Forbes. Fucking priceless.
cos you could sumo wrestle your friends with them, snatch the flesh off of unsuspecting critters if you get hungry, and if a tsunami comes along ... no worries!
Makes a bit more sense though - why else would the guy be warning the sheeple ahead of time, cutting into his potential profits. The more people who get in on the stripping the less profit for those that do.
This guy does look similar but different than the regular 'yes man' though...
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Right now, he's on the cell phone with Scott Walker.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
http://www.leadingtrader.com/
No wonder Goldman Sachs executives are arming themselves.
bichlbaum is an elaborate hoaxster ... he built those survive-a-balls just to dupe a roomful of insurance execs ... spending a year and a half creating a web presence is pretty small potatoes
.
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
http://www.yeslab.org/rastani
I feel dirty after reading this.
The solution is obviously more deregulation.
We seem to have lost the basic concepts of effectively running a society. When you take away the laws, or simply refuse to enforce them, you've given carte blanche to the sociopaths.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Will the American media bother to inform the American people that the financial industry now owns the world's governments? Don't bet on it.
Rastani warned us all to protect our assets and invest in US treasury bonds and the dollar. I think that is good advice. Money invested in the market is low hanging fruit for the picking.
I wonder if Mr. Rastani has been counter party to any large trades with UBS recently.
Remember the good old days, when we had an SEC.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Watch the PhD. level Documentary - The Money Masters.
Report back.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
alas ..
No one with capital wants to risk real investing when there are faster & easier ways to make money.
End of story.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
His website is down. I guess he was getting too many love notes from the masses.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Man is telling the truth.....who did he say rules the world!? Yeah sounded sick, but at least he's not sugar coating it and trying to make people feel better. He's telling you what traders love, $$$$$$$, what governments won't say and if nothing else he did say protect your assets (Ha!). Jaws dropped in the studio cause they rarely hear the truth. Everybody acts shocked when the tidal wave hits, but we can all see it miles off shore. Rather hear this than....Things could be better OK, well look the markets can, don't panic...wait.
I don't make jokes - I just watch the government and report the facts. WILL ROGERS.
we're fucted.
have lost all implausibility ... sometimes i think our existence is just an elaborate, sick joke orchestrated by evil giants who are looking down on us right now an laughing their asses off
Have you noticed the ever narrowing line between The Onion and real news?
http://onionlike.tumblr.com/
I have long suspected that our reality is an elaborate divine prank...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
There are now reports that this interview is actually a prank by the "Yes Men". Let's hope so.
Is it a surprise that the big players make money whether the market rises or falls? That is what hedging is all about. All they need is volatility to make profits. They need the rest of us in the market to be the hedge. That's why your investment advisor will tell you it is foolish to move your money out of stocks in a crisis while all the time his company is doing exactly that.
Normal people don't know that the very people that they are trusting to manage their 401(k)s and pension funds and the ones trying to get them to buy individual stocks are secretly playing this game where they are putting on 2x or 3x ultrashorts to hedge their exposure to sharp market downturns. This is glaringly obvious if one compares the massive put interest on the S&P against the dearth of call interest.
They win if there is volatility - regardless of its direction. Our money is used to churn the system - to provide the casino with "liquidity".
And the answer to your question is "yes": alot of people are surprised that such massive hedging is occurring among the snake oil salesman who tell the public that the markets are oversold and that we need to belly up to the casino.
While others dream of roasting you on a spit.
this guy turning up deceased because he dared to tell the truth about who's in charge of the global economy.
There is a special place reserved in Hell for this moron.
Goldman Sachs has no ability to exert either, at least not directly. Government does, and as soon as attacking banksters benefits policy makers more than playing their toady does, the banksters will find that they don't actually rule jack shit.
"and as soon as attacking banksters benefits policy makers more than playing their toady does, the banksters will find that they don't actually rule jack shit."
Uh yeah, and this will happen....when? I saw that Sci Fi movie, yup in 2269.
I don't make jokes - I just watch the government and report the facts. WILL ROGERS.
Simple as that. Right now, the worst that politicians deal with from the public is a cute parade with some ironic signs. I wouldn't give a shit about that either.
I believe the markets have shown this by their months of near-daily triple digit movement.
Not exactly normal trading that's been going on.
"No one ever said these people were logically consistent."
- watchdog -
This guy is absolutely right. I watched CNBC laugh at Roubini for much of 2007. I got out of the market a few hundred points before it started falling in late 2007. Sure looks like 2007 all over again. Preserve your capital.
BBC just got punk'd?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
I am usually one who never wishes ill someone,but I have to make an exception with subhumans like this guy.
I hope one day he wakes up and finds a foreclosure sign on his house or condo. The repo man taking away his ferrari or whatever luxury car he has. The sherrif coming over to take all his computers because of an ongoing investigation into his practices and the next envelope he receives in the mail will be food stamps,maybe.
What a mega jerk he is.
No.
I'm sick n tired of these doomsday shouting people.
That guy is wrong. He may believe that what he's saying is the truth. He may believe that the Eurozone will be toast in the next 12 months. But thats not gonna happen.
First and foremost: Euro = Deutsche Mark! Eurozone is a German show.
Most of you guys here are from an anglo-saxon culture. Although we have much in common in terms of morals and values, there are still some differences. Differences you might even not be aware of.
Let me explain one of those differences:
In the US/UK, capitalism has become a religion. Capitalism for Capitalisms sake. Germans call that predatory capitalism. If this guy claims Goldman Sachs rules the world, well, those kind of guys perhaps rule the anglo-saxon world. But not German-world.
Unlike the americans, Germans never really felt in love with capitalism. The perceive capitalism merly as a tool. A tool to create wealth and to bring the country as a whole forward. But they do not worship it as a religion. If capitalistic thinking hurts our community, we abandon it. When socialism creates better results, Germans have no problems to incorporate socialism. Just to let you know.
Germans are very competitive and ambititous people. If they set a goal, they usually achieve it (as long as no crazy person is in charge, of course). That's why measured capitalism fits so well in Germany.
But this is maybe also why some other smaller Euro-countries got crushed. Lazy Lightweight (Greece for example) vs. ambitious Heavyweight, gee wonder who wins.
Think about it: Compared to USA/China Deutschland is a tiny country. In terms of exporting goods, we whoop US ass. We export (and get earning from it) more than the US combined. And up to 2009, we analraped Chinas ass, too. Yes, tiny Germany against 10 trillion *****s. [If you combine France & Germany, we still whoop chinese ass any day of the week].
And they achieve all of that without being really sold on the entire capitalism thing. Eurozone as a whole is no lightweight.
Do Goldman Sachs people really want a no holds barret shootout? OK. But they do not realise that if Germany is cornered and on the brink to loose, they will say fuck it and change the rules.
What? Capitalism isnt working for us anymore and is fucking us over? Oh well. Then we will take away the capitalist mechanisms that hurt us. Wont be pretty, but Germans were never known for pretty.
Are goldman sachs people able to dish out serious damage? Sure. But at the end they wont win. If it hurts to much, Germany will cut Greece. But in the long run it would be better if Greece remained in the Eurozone. Germany has not decided yet.
read my lips:
EUROZONE WILL NOT COLLAPSE.
FFS, the german state of Hesse is a bigger economical power than Greece.
"Forget the politicians. Politicians are put there to make you believe you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have OWNERS. They OWN YOU. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control all the big corporations. They have long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses and city halls. They got the judges in their back pocket and they own and control all the big media companies so they control the information you get to hear.
They got you by the balls." - George Carlin
And they don't care who knows it anymore.
"Even if 50 million people say a stupid thing - it is still a stupid thing." - Anatole France
The borrower is the servant of the lender! has been true for over 3000 years. We operate under a fractional l reserve banking system. For every $100 you deposit into the bank, they have the authority to loan $800. They create money on the books with the stroke of a pen. When you make a $20,000 down payment to buy a $100,000 house.
Your deposit created $180,000 on the banks books, so they loan you $80,000 back to you, for you to pay interest on. At least $150,000 worth if you get a good rate that is!
For a 2nd revolution.
Roll out the guillotines. Off with their heads!
Get out of paper assets and buy gold and silver.
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