The financial institutions that WaPo dare not name
Concern over such deal-making reached a fever pitch last summer, when oil prices were sky high and people were feeling pain at the gas pump. CFTC data showed last year that a significant amount of trading in oil was concentrated in the hands of just a few speculators. These worries have waned since then, as gas prices have moderated from last year’s highs, though a recent run-up in fuel prices may prompt new questions.
via CFTC Floats Rules Aimed at Speculation – washingtonpost.com.
This is a great example of how a story that’s primarily about Goldman and Morgan Stanley manages never to mention them by name.
The Post leaves out a lot of details in this piece. Among other things, they describe this new plan by the CFTC to place restrictions on speculative commodities trades as an idea that came from new CFTC commissioner Gary Gensler, who of course is a former Goldman banker and was a key aide to Bob Rubin back when the two of them were in the Treasury in the late 1990s and pushing for the deregulation of derivatives.
From what I understand, the opposite is true here. This new plan was what Gensler had to agree to in order to be confirmed by the Senate. A hold had been placed on his nomination by Bernie Sanders (although the Democratic majority, unimpressed with Sanders’s complaints, pushed his nomination anyway), and was only lifted when Gensler agreed to eat this plan and a few other policy changes.
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Like you said the RS article, instead of looking like scumbags for milking pensioners and the working-class, these banks are somehow always perceived as the smart guys in the room who are just playing by the rules of the market. In reality, if a market isn’t profitable enough for GS they can just drum up some sort of exemption or rule change from some regulatory board comprised of former colleagues. Bunch of gangsters.
And they’re not even sexy gangsters! Just overfed, sweaty, greedy, rotting-from-the-inside-out gangsters. Shame.
In response to another comment. See in context »So true. If a movie is ever made – and it should be – we won’t see Johnny Depp playing any of these financial villains.
In response to another comment. See in context »Thanks Matt, this is very important work.
Ive been following your work for a while now and each year you step up your game. Thanks for putting this big mess into English for us. Keep it up.
P.S. Great Derangement sequel in the works?
Matt, The mainstream media use the phrase “the market” as if it’s some living being, capable of thought and action. It drives me insane!
Your work, and that of a few others, reminds us that “the market” is made up of human beings, fewer all the time, who make decisions which have a profound impact on all our lives. They will do anything for the quick, short-term profit; stability and decency be damned! They will write the rules when possible, have the rules changed when practicable, and break the rules if need be. The rest of us can either get pissed, or keep our heads down in the dirt like the rest of the fucking sheep. (I said “dirt” because there’s no grass left)
The “smartest guys in the room” are only so in the sense that they get away with all this crookedness and, sadly, live to do it over and over again. Like you said in The Big Takeover, “It’s over — we’re officially, royally fucked.”
Your article is incisive and important. Your rebuttal (above) is dead right. With both you have pulled the curtain back to reveal the emperor in his underwear. And, unfortunately, given the co-opted state of the MSM and our tuned out population of consumers nothing will change. Goldman (and others) will continue to rule and rape and we will continue to say “thank you sir, may I have another?”
Shame and outrage have left the building.
Nor the NYTs, if I recall the same story. I do remember having to speculate as to who was responsible. You mean they knew and didn’t say? You don’t say.
So you’re finally getting nasty track back instead of shrugs. Good. They’re feeling it.
Since you’re heading to the next bubble, you might want to brain storm with David Suzuki. I heard him on the radio while I was out running errands (1 of which was finding the latest RS – finally success). He’s the Canadian ecophilia guru who’s has some good insight to the consumptive nature of our country and continent.
Continue to confuse their issues with facts (a fun argument those on the ropes like to use). Keep it coming. Different interpretations may be OK, but as an astute legislator noted, there is only 1 set of facts. You’ll probably get more hate mail than love letters, but maybe the internet helps with the balance.
I really enjoy Matt’s reporting. I have nothing but good things to say about this very talented writer with the balls to speak the truth about these greedy men.
I read that article in the Post, shortly after reading your magnificent Stone piece, and was, well, disheartened and then pissed off. That “just a few speculators” line!? By then, your article was everywhere, and the Post still falls back on that vague shit, refusing to name names, as if it’s just a few knucklehead hillbillies, say, like the “few bad apples” at Abu Graib? Another example of the grotesque decline of the Post, which I grew up reading and, mostly, believing. That rag can’t disappear soon enough.
My concern is that no one will take your article seriously. Is it possible for honest, thorough journalism to have any impact in Washington? Or will they just continue to go about their merry business?
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