That was interesting reading, orda. But nothing new to me, because I pay a lot of attention to this stuff and have for years. My Pet Peeve!!!
You know, it's kind of funny. Right now the Feds are after online poker players. It's illegal to gamble on cards.
They just need to call it an investment. You can gamble on anything as long as there's an underlying commodity or asset and Wall Street is involved.
We have "financial" markets of Trillion$ for things that many big players never take delivery on, supply, or hedge. Just pure speculation, gambling, and skimming. All done in the name of "providing a liquid market".
GIVE ME A BREAK!
My pet peeve is oil. The biggest physical market in the world, and we need speculators and hedge funds making billions to help make it liquid enough? !!! What a joke.
Three (or is it now four?) years ago I wrote to a handful in Congress talking about how, with Americans totally over extended and living beyond paycheck to paycheck, the out of control oil market was going to take down the economy.
There was six, or was it seven, times the actual real market of oil being paper traded, in bull mode, running oil prices up far into the hundred plus per barrel. It was obvious that mortgage payments (and everything else) would suffer...and the whole house of cards would then unravel.
I proposed higher margin requirements, and severe position limits for traders that were not actually hedging their real supply or demand.
I got back form letters that said "thank you for your letter on oil prices, please rest assured that Senator XXX is in favor of drilling in ANWAR and opening off shore drilling in YYYY"
I was incensed beyond words. They (their staff) paid no attention to anything I said and saw only "high oil prices".
Then I sold deep in the money calls on almost every stock I owned and watched everything collapse. I still got killed, even with deep in the money calls that expired without having to buy them back.
It was all so predictable. AND IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN RIGHT NOW. Goldman and their ilk have run oil over $110 again, and will nip the recovery in the bud. Hopefully the bubble will burst before the economic recovery has no prayer left.
But Goldman doesn't care. Long as they get their giant vig.
And just wait til cap and trade passes. Goldman and their ilk will get another massive hundreds of billions (or trillion$) in another great transfer of wealth from us little guys.
I still can't believe neither party will do anything about this. Is there ANYBODY out there that isn't in Wall Street's pocket?
D&O
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