BBC Speechless As Trader Tells Truth: “The Collapse Is Coming…And Goldman Rules The World”

[SD Transplant]

Linky: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bbc-speechless-trader-tells-truth-collapse-comingand-goldman-rules-world

This is a must watch. We haven’t had any exciting news lately, so why not debate this one 🙂

“In an interview on BBC News this morning that left the hosts gob-smacked (google it… it is the BBC after all), Alessio Rastani outlines in a mere three-and-a-half-minutes what we all know and most ignore. While the whole interview is worth watching, the money shot for us was “This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait hoping it is going to go away, just like a cancer it is going to grow and it will be too late!”. While he dreams of recessions, sees Goldman ruling the world, and urges people to prepare, it is hard to disagree with much (or actually anything) of what he says and obviously interventions and machinations means we will have days like this (in Silver for instance), there is only one endgame here and we hope there is less hopeful euphoria (and more preparedness) as we pull back the curtain further and further.

While we do not know who this trader is, one thing we can be 100% certain of is that he will never appear on CNBC.”

[earlyretirement]

Mr. Rastani is absolutely correct when he says traders care what happens to the economy. Traders don’t care what happens. They are out to make a buck. I’m surprised the BBC cast seemed so surprised by what he is saying.

He was also correct that many traders dream of recessions. Me personally I dread them because everyone suffers. But he was absolutely 100% correct when he said the average guy on the street can make money during recessions as well.

I remember several years ago telling everyone and their brother to sell short all the banks and bond insurers and financial companies.

I had several clients that worked at Lehman Bros (LEH). I even told many of them why I was shorting the company they worked at and how I believed it would go under. We always just agreed to disagree on the future of LEH and the market.

They kept going on and on how it would never happen and the sad thing is many of them had most of their net worth tied up in LEH stock. Many of them kept buying on the way down “averaging down”. I ended up short selling LEH into bankruptcy.

Denial is a very strong thing. People don’t realize just how close to a total economic collapse we had just a few short years ago. And the scary thing is many of the same problems out there were never solved….

[davelj]

[quote=earlyretirement]

I remember several years ago telling everyone and their brother to sell short all the banks and bond insurers and financial companies.

I had several clients that worked at Lehman Bros (LEH). I even told many of them why I was shorting the company they worked at and how I believed it would go under. We always just agreed to disagree on the future of LEH and the market.

They kept going on and on how it would never happen and the sad thing is many of them had most of their net worth tied up in LEH stock. Many of them kept buying on the way down “averaging down”. I ended up short selling LEH into bankruptcy.
[/quote]

Please also tell us about the financials that you shorted which survived and subsequently doubled and tripled. It defies reason that LEH was the only one you placed a bet on. Inquiring minds and all…

[CA renter]

davelj,

I think there were quite a few people out there who shorted the financials and managed to close their positions at the right time.

IMHO, the short sellers knew to get out of the way when all the talk of intervention began.

[The-Shoveler]

Speaking of financial geniuses , it still cracks me up that everyone thought Greenspan was a maestro financier extraordinaire. I mean the guy would come in and mumble some incomprehensible cr#p for 30 minutes and everyone would spend the next half day trying to make sense out of what must surely be the most intelligent words ever spoken by a mortal.
Thinking back it makes me double up with laughter, well at least I can laugh about it.

Oh wait you don’t suppose he really knew what he was doing do you ?

[Jazzman]

I believe this is the Yes Men. See Bopal Dow Chemicals.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/09/27/is-alessio-rastani-a-yes-man/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilylambert/2011/09/27/trader-or-prankster-we-called-alessio-rastani-and-asked/

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Nor-LA-SD-GUY2]Speaking of financial geniuses , it still cracks me up that everyone thought Greenspan was a maestro financier extraordinaire. I mean the guy would come in and mumble some incomprehensible cr#p for 30 minutes and everyone would spend the next half day trying to make sense out of what must surely be the most intelligent words ever spoken by a mortal.
Thinking back it makes me double up with laughter, well at least I can laugh about it.

Oh wait you don’t suppose he really knew what he was doing do you ?[/quote]

Why do you think public figures hire public relations firms? Because the vast majority of people want the image, not the reality. With financial information, it’s a particularly easy sell. People don’t want to read, even a little bit, so they’re not even remotely in a position to begin to make a judgement about the qualifications, skill, and intelligence of an economist. But that doesn’t stop them from doing their part to cement the guy’s image as a brilliant financial guru in the public’s consciousness.

Unfortunately, that trait is shared by individuals who are in great positions of power at the top levels of our government. Our esteemed Congress is chock full of members, many of long standing, who don’t have the barest grasp of economic principles. However, they are fortunate: the reporters who are supposed to question them, and their constituents, who should be, are just as clueless. But no one wants to appear that way, so when someone says with seeming authority, “That Allan Greenspan is a freakin’ economic genius!”, the guy on the barstool next to him is not only going to say, “Fuckin’ A, Bubba”, he’s going to mentally file that away (next to the lottery numbers he plays every week) so that he can use it to impress the guys at work the next day.

And there you have it: Greenspan = maestro financier extraordinaire.

If you want to see the technique in action, go to any “political issues discussion” site (make sure they’re the ones that are actually people screwed by their own bad choices, but looking for a way to blame the consequences on the “government”), and listen to the participants bash each other, utilizing their self-perceived rapier-like economic intellect (i.e., whatever they’ve heard from their favorite talk radio host, television pundit, or debate participant – or previous evening’s barroom buddy).

One of my personal faves was MacD, a guy responding to a poster who had opined that the exponential growth of the early 20th century middle class in America was due in very large part to the widespread unionization of labor. MacD, clearly frustrated with what he termed the poster’s “inexcuxeable socalist ignorence (sic)” shot back , “Stupid tool, the reason for the middle class was trickle down economics”.

[earlyretirement]

[quote=davelj][quote=earlyretirement]

I remember several years ago telling everyone and their brother to sell short all the banks and bond insurers and financial companies.

I had several clients that worked at Lehman Bros (LEH). I even told many of them why I was shorting the company they worked at and how I believed it would go under. We always just agreed to disagree on the future of LEH and the market.

They kept going on and on how it would never happen and the sad thing is many of them had most of their net worth tied up in LEH stock. Many of them kept buying on the way down “averaging down”. I ended up short selling LEH into bankruptcy.
[/quote]

Please also tell us about the financials that you shorted which survived and subsequently doubled and tripled. It defies reason that LEH was the only one you placed a bet on. Inquiring minds and all…[/quote]

I short sold TONS of companies/stocks. Yes, many of them came back but I covered short positions in December 2008/January 2009. I didn’t catch the absolute bottom in March but then again it’s impossible to perfectly time the absolute bottoms and tops.

I’m not saying I’m any financial genius because I’m certainly not. But I don’t think it took a genius to see that things were in bad shape.

Also, I’m not saying all the plays I made were correct. After harping over and over how horrible the banking/financials were. I tried to catch a falling knife with Washington Mutual. I shorted it down to the single digits from way up high and made quite a bit of money. But then I bought and went long 2 days before it totally collapsed. I didn’t think the US government would let it collapse. Boy was I wrong!

So that’s what I get for trying to catch a falling knife. The government let it collapse and basically handed it over to Chase Bank. The stock became almost worthless overnight. I lost $250,000+ in two days. That hurt.

I’m reminded of that as I just got some paperwork in the mail last week from a class action lawsuit…as usual the lawyers will make all the $$$$. It said I could get 7 cents per share or something silly like that.

Yeah, lots of financials came back and I missed the upside on them. But many of them are still in horrible shape. Look at Citigroup. Without the reverse split they’d be less than $3.

I am however long in BAC in the $6’s which I’ll hold for the long term as I do think they will come back. They have a TON of toxic waste on the books but I’m comfortable buying in the low $6’s there.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=eavesdropper] “That Allan Greenspan is a freakin’ economic genius!”.[/quote]

Eaves: Um, it’s Alan Greenspan, not Allan Greenspan. For obvious reasons, I don’t like to be associated with that clown. I’d prefer to be associated with other clowns, please. Like Comrade Gletkin, Zelig and Barry Goldwater.

I’ve been thinking of changing my handle to “Goldwater’s Love Child” to dispel any misapprehensions as to my true political leanings. Your thoughts?

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=eavesdropper] “That Allan Greenspan is a freakin’ economic genius!”.[/quote]

Eaves: Um, it’s Alan Greenspan, not Allan Greenspan. For obvious reasons, I don’t like to be associated with that clown. I’d prefer to be associated with other clowns, please. Like Comrade Gletkin, Zelig and Barry Goldwater.

I’ve been thinking of changing my handle to “Goldwater’s Love Child” to dispel any misapprehensions as to my true political leanings. Your thoughts?[/quote]

Allan, are you going to insist on being a dick all your life? The guy at the bar pronounced it “Allan”, instead of “Alan”. How was I supposed to know?

It makes me hot when you refer to yourself as “Goldwater’s L.C.”. Qualifier: That’s Goldwater, Senior, and not Barry, Junior, right?

If you’re gonna be Goldwater’s Love Child (ooooh! I can hear it now: “My father left left. He never even married mom…”), can I be “Goldwater’s Love Child’s One-night Stand Big-Ass Mistake”?

C’mon, Allan, can I? Stop saying, “No child of mine’ll be bearin’ the name of shame I been wearin’.”

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=eavesdropper][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=eavesdropper] “That Allan Greenspan is a freakin’ economic genius!”.[/quote]

Eaves: Um, it’s Alan Greenspan, not Allan Greenspan. For obvious reasons, I don’t like to be associated with that clown. I’d prefer to be associated with other clowns, please. Like Comrade Gletkin, Zelig and Barry Goldwater.

I’ve been thinking of changing my handle to “Goldwater’s Love Child” to dispel any misapprehensions as to my true political leanings. Your thoughts?[/quote]

Allan, are you going to insist on being a dick all your life? The guy at the bar pronounced it “Allan”, instead of “Alan”. How was I supposed to know?

It makes me hot when you refer to yourself as “Goldwater’s L.C.”. Qualifier: That’s Goldwater, Senior, and not Barry, Junior, right?

If you’re gonna be Goldwater’s Love Child (ooooh! I can hear it now: “My father left left. He never even married mom…”), can I be “Goldwater’s Love Child’s One-night Stand Big-Ass Mistake”?

C’mon, Allan, can I? Stop saying, “No child of mine’ll be bearin’ the name of shame I been wearin’.”[/quote]

Eaves: You refer to me possibly being the spawn of Barry, Jr., and I’M the dick?!? The best part of Barry, Jr. ran down his mom’s leg at birth!

And why would it be a “Big-Ass Mistake”? Now you’re just making it sound dirty! I got all excited there for a moment, until I realized that you would feel sullied and embarrassed by what I’d consider a singularly glorious event. Dick, indeed, Madam! Just so you know, I’m hanging the keys to the Mustang back up. Also, I had a total 1964 skinny tie and those geeky black specs all picked out. Your loss.

[CA renter]

[quote=Nor-LA-SD-GUY2]Speaking of financial geniuses , it still cracks me up that everyone thought Greenspan was a maestro financier extraordinaire. I mean the guy would come in and mumble some incomprehensible cr#p for 30 minutes and everyone would spend the next half day trying to make sense out of what must surely be the most intelligent words ever spoken by a mortal.
Thinking back it makes me double up with laughter, well at least I can laugh about it.

Oh wait you don’t suppose he really knew what he was doing do you ?[/quote]

Sad, but true.

Never understood how he ever got the title “The Maestro.” All he did was pump money/lower rates whenever the market would start to correct…he was a long-only’s wet dream. A monkey could have done what he did.

[eavesdropper]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] Eaves: You refer to me possibly being the spawn of Barry, Jr., and I’M the dick?!? The best part of Barry, Jr. ran down his mom’s leg at birth! [/quote]

Allan, you are absolutely justified in your piss-offedness, and should challenge me to a duel. I don’t know how I could have possibly erred in so egregious a manner. I’ll go watch the Sarah Palin-Glen Beck “interview” as my penance (but I will have to ingest a pharmacologic aid before I do).

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] And why would it be a “Big-Ass Mistake”? Now you’re just making it sound dirty! I got all excited there for a moment, until I realized that you would feel sullied and embarrassed by what I’d consider a singularly glorious event. Dick, indeed, Madam! Just so you know, I’m hanging the keys to the Mustang back up. Also, I had a total 1964 skinny tie and those geeky black specs all picked out. Your loss.[/quote]

Actually, I was referring to myself as the Big-Ass Mistake, i.e. the “Goldwater Love-Grandchild” Don’t get all insulted again: this is not a comment on your age. I simply never dreamed that I’d get a chance to make political semi-history in the backseat of the Mustang. And, besides, your wife would kick my ass if she knew.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

This is Allan’s wife and yes, I would. And just for the record, his middle name isn’t “Richard” for nothing. He revels in his “Richardness” sometimes.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=eavesdropper][quote=Allan from Fallbrook] Eaves: You refer to me possibly being the spawn of Barry, Jr., and I’M the dick?!? The best part of Barry, Jr. ran down his mom’s leg at birth! [/quote]

Allan, you are absolutely justified in your piss-offedness, and should challenge me to a duel. I don’t know how I could have possibly erred in so egregious a manner. I’ll go watch the Sarah Palin-Glen Beck “interview” as my penance (but I will have to ingest a pharmacologic aid before I do).

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] And why would it be a “Big-Ass Mistake”? Now you’re just making it sound dirty! I got all excited there for a moment, until I realized that you would feel sullied and embarrassed by what I’d consider a singularly glorious event. Dick, indeed, Madam! Just so you know, I’m hanging the keys to the Mustang back up. Also, I had a total 1964 skinny tie and those geeky black specs all picked out. Your loss.[/quote]

Actually, I was referring to myself as the Big-Ass Mistake, i.e. the “Goldwater Love-Grandchild” Don’t get all insulted again: this is not a comment on your age. I simply never dreamed that I’d get a chance to make political semi-history in the backseat of the Mustang. And, besides, your wife would kick my ass if she knew.[/quote]

Allan, it might be more comfortable if you stayed in the front seats. They recline . . . at least most of the way! And Eaves, please don’t think about using a “pharmacologic aid” for this experience. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity . . . truly :=]

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