General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWas cocaine abuse by bankers behind the financial meltdown?
http://agonist.org/global-financial-crisis-due-to-bankers-on-cocaine-says-brit-expert/
jmowreader
(50,447 posts)Gee...who'da thunk that if you write a law that lets derivatives traders do whatever the hell they want (it's called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act), they'll do whatever will make them the most money whether it makes any sense at all?
autorank
(29,456 posts)And they're tweeking in between
Enabling Acts for an Era of Greed April 14, 2009
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/enabling-acts-era-greed-money-party-work
meow2u3
(24,743 posts)Coke abuse is the reason the greedy get greedier; they have to get their next fix and powder cocaine is not exactly cheap.
autorank
(29,456 posts)You take the same substance, change the packaging and rename it and you broaden the market to an amazing extent. How many bankers would do crack (and if they did, they'd call it "free basing"
reteachinwi
(579 posts)Unfortunate name.
autorank
(29,456 posts)He's a heavy hitter but who knows where he got his info on the drug habits of bankers.
" He is currently Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) and Past-President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), Vice-President of the European Brain Council and President of the British Neuroscience Association"
http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/d.nutt/
From The Independent article:
Last week he attacked the Government over the laws dealing with magic mushrooms, ecstasy and cannabis, which he claims hinder medical research. Magic mushrooms were banned in 2005.
Prof Nutt said he deems the laws surrounding mushrooms "absurd" and "insane" and says it makes it hard to procure one of their ingredients - psilocybin, which is used to treat depression.
reteachinwi
(579 posts)I read in a source I would rather not reference on DU that much of the "masters of the universe" bullying was invented by physicists who turned quantum mechanics statistical methods of handling large amounts of data to Wall Street, believing they could make a killing. Makes you wonder what other foppery will come from the "big data" crowd.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)Change the profile. Might be more productive.
meow2u3
(24,743 posts)You're bound to get far more positive tests.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)autorank
(29,456 posts)Bentley's, Lambo's - must stop and search.
"Do you mind if I search your car sir?" lol
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)As summed up at the end of the article.
The whole thing sounds like a drug crazed event, doesnt it? A bunch of self-proclaimed geniuses realizing that theyve ruined their business come up with a crazy plan to save their firms (most of them) and their lifestyle. They get one their own, who just happens to be Secretary of the Treasury, to bankroll their mistakes (and worse) and they just keep going while the rest of the country struggles on for years to recover.
If you're talking about "self-proclaimed geniuses" there were all those 'financial engineers' who thought they had a blueprint for the economic equivalent of cold fusion. They went down to some Florida or Caribbean resort (okay, maybe there was a pharmaceutical angle) and they were going to teach everybody else their revolutionary theories, and take the "less advanced" financial theorists to school. (Can't remember the book, a Brit. writer for the Financial Times. Brown cover. I picked it up for 10 minutes at a friend's house.)
But from what I recall, it wasn't just a real estate/mortgage/derivatives bubble. The price of a barrel of crude was up over 150 bucks. Then those prices just totally tanked. Down to 35 or 40 for a time? That index that measures orders for international container shipping, ocean freight. It had gone off the rails and tanked, signalling a crash, even before the rest of the economy did.
The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars was still "on the credit card," not on the books. Instead of taking their earnings and putting them back into some kind of productive activity, the war profiteers were making bucket shop bets.
How much money is still hidden away in off-shore accounts? 30 trillion? Did you see the reports about the size of the money pile that's in "private" banks?
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=365
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/exposed_a_global_offshore_money_web_20130404
As much as anything, sheer avarice, arrogance and unrestrained financial piracy brought the house of cards down five years ago. Too many people taking advantage of unsustainable, paper-chit-from-a-crooked bookie, big and quick pay offs. Like Tony Soprano in cahoots with the regulators and at the end, they make sure they've pulled all the copper pipes (and every other asset) from the ruins of all those HUD-approved buildings.
The Libor scandal, everything Matt Taibbi has written about the vampire squid, HSBC paying the 1.9 billion "fine" for laundering drug money and nobody goes to jail?
People took to the streets to protest. (There was that whole "occupy" thing.) Then it just kind of goes away, and people go back to paying attention to which Kardashian is doing who.
...Maybe it's all of us, regular average citizens, that have some kind of pharmaceutical issues.
autorank
(29,456 posts)Economists, for the most part, enabled this mess.
So true, what you said: "As much as anything, sheer avarice, arrogance and unrestrained financial piracy brought the house of cards down five years ago. "
They knew it was coming and they made their plans to come out OK and hose the rest of us.
Mission accomplished.
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)Let's all of us regular folks pull our money from Potter's Bank.
Pass the hat and get everybody involved and invest it all in the Building & Loan.
...It would be couch cushion money.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/jamie-dimon-dong-slaps-inquisitive-analyst-in-hilarious-exchange-20130227
freedom fighter jh
(1,782 posts)I am making that change in my own life.
Years ago I opened an account at Wachovia because it was within easy walking distance of my house. Wachovia then became Wells Fargo and I started hearing horror stories about WF's unfair mortgage practices. When the guilt became overwhelming, I opened a credit union account.
Now I no longer have to support the greed machine.
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)The robber baron, Ol' Man Potter, and George Bailey. The way the town changed
after George 'had never been born' and it became Pottersville.
But yeah, I opened a credit union account, too. Only it feels like too little, too late.
Jenna Jameson, the porn star, summed it up before the last election. Talking about
the Obamal/Romney option, she said, "if you're a rich person, the Greedy Old Pigs
are better for you." There are fewer of them, but they have all the money.
It's their town, now.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)I have no doubt
datasuspect
(26,591 posts)i suppose anything is possible.