A Smidgen of Truth Escapes the msm
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- Date published:
1:19 pm, September 29th, 2011 - 15 comments
Categories: capitalism, class war, debt / deficit, Economy, economy -
Tags: financial crisis, financial institutions, global economy, traders
It’s not often that ‘bald truths’ escape the filtration of the msm. The video below is an example of one of those rare moments.
hat tip Hilary and CV
The follow up in the msm has been rather peculiar and revealing. Rather than focussing on the content or veracity of what Alessio Rastani had to say, there has been an effort to focus on speculation as to whether he was one of the ‘Yes Men’ perpetuating a hoax.
Here’s the thing. Rastani isn’t really saying anything that many of us didn’t already know. But to hear it ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’? Well, that’s unusual…and not a little refreshing.
Where Rastani is wrong is in his prescription for surviving the imminent ‘crash’. He is advocating a ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ mentality. He is saying that anyone can be a trader and survive or even prosper, by making money from a tumbling market. That’s true in one sense. But also ridiculous in another.
It’s akin to a stewardess standing up on a plane that is plummeting to terra firma with dead pilots on board and asserting that ‘anyone’ can fly a plane and asking who wants to go into the draw for realising their child-hood fantasy of being an airline pilot.
So besides a trader advocating we should all be traders if we want to avoid immiseration, we have a msm that just sticks it’s fingers in it’s ears to avoid hearing what could well be a reasonable, if uncomfortable prognosis of the world’s current economic situation.
Meaning it’s a safe bet to assume that we are not going to be hearing any suggestion, that rather than being passive observors to a concentration of private wealth into fewer and fewer hands as financial institutions claim the wealth of the productive economy in lieu of debt owed it in the financial economy, that we could – or maybe even should and with urgency – bend our will to reclaiming the commons.
p.s. Seems this guy kind of epitomises an honest John Key (if such a thing is imaginable!) The kind of John Key that nobody in their right mind would vote for. An honest john Key who would have us believe that no matter how parlous the productive economy, in his honest opinion, everything is just fine. Aw shit…that’s probably the one heart felt and honest line that John Key trundles out… Happy election guys!
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arrr smiling Jonkey, Building a Better Future. yeah righ, the man is a Muppet. Sorry for offending Muppet fans.
Do you think this post will be updated with the facts that Alessio is a hobby trader?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8792829/BBC-financial-expert-Alessio-Rastani-Im-an-attention-seeker-not-a-trader.html
Kinda makes a mockery of the whole interview and this post. Straight from the horses mouth? Straight from the mouth of a guy no more qualified to talk about the markets that you or I…
“He is a business owner, a 99pc shareholder in public speaking venture Santoro Projects. Its most recent accounts show cash in the bank of £985. After four years trading net assets are £10,048 – in the red”.
“They approached me,” he told The Telegraph. “I’m an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking.”
In muppet land he is second only to George WWWWW I reckon. not only is he a muupet he is wet.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Bad metaphor. If the plane’s in workable condition then anyone can fly the plane (landing is a little more problematical). Basically, anyone going forward and trying is better than leaving the dead pilots to it.
The wings have fallen off and the zombie pilots* are saying that everything is fine and just to come forward when your name is called is a far more accurate description of what’s actually happening to the global economy.
* John Key and his clique
Zombie pilots? That is possibly the most terrifying fictional imagining ever.
(Excluding the obvious metaphor).
No-one can figure out why he did it – he doesn’t even have a fund – so where is the upside? we think he just had a momentary lapse of judgement and told the truth!!!!
The upside is that he is shorting the world. So he can make a tonne of money as the markets crash.
Of course, there won’t be a real economy left to buy things from with all his new money, but no plan is perfect.
great clip
I believe the Titanic is a better analogy.
People who were awake in the early 2000s could see that the ‘Titanic’ was headed straight for the iceberg and attempted to get the course altered and the engines put into reverse -to no avail because captain and officers were determiend to maintian course and speed.
Now this trader is saying there is money to be made selling life jackets and places on lifeboats.
Meanwhile, the orchestra plays on, meals are still being served in the restaurant, and most people (especially in NZ) still haven’t noticed the ship is taking in water.
Schopenhauer pointed out that all truth passes through three stages:
First it is ridiculed/ignored
Second it is vigorously opposed.
Third it is accepted as being self-evident.
The NZ populace will wake up when enough people have ‘drowned’. Not before, it seems.
Well, actually, they wanted speed up and still do even though we’re now hitting the iceberg.
quite please i linked this a few days ago 😉
Of course this trader has an interest in promoting this view, as he states – a recession is good. And the more people that think there’s going to be a recession, the greater the chances of there being a recession!
What a system.
This is what’s wrong with it: (and I’m going to shout it very loud, apologies):
THERE ARE INCENTIVES FOR NEGATIVE OUTCOMES. IF YOU LEAVE IT UP TO THE MARKET, IT WILL LOGICALLY AND RATIONALLY DO BAD THINGS.
Well bad for most of us, but good for the few who are the market makers and market movers and shakers.
The Yes Men congratulate his honesty but he is not one of their pranks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/29/alessio-rastani-no-prank