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The Financial System should be Scrapped

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by
Ben
, 20th March 2008 at 10:19 AM (3024 Views)
A while back now I watched a free movie called Zeitgeist that talked about some of the US's historical financial cockups. One of the examples of suggested corruption was how JP Morgan and the Federal Reserve had a lot to do with one another, and how by controlling the economy people like JP Morgan could push other banks to the brink and then buy them for peanuts.

I was somewhat alarmed, then, when Bear Stearns got into trouble last week and a finance deal was arranged between JP Morgan (bank) and the Fed to provide emergency funds. Why the Fed was channelling money through JP Morgan, essentially removing any risk, is beyond me. Then, once that news had completely obliterated Bear Stearns share price, JP Morgan simply bought them. Yes, they bought a company worth $18bn for just $200m, with much of the risk taken away by the Fed.

Bear Stearns is worth way more than $200m. Hell, I wouldn't sell my little toe for that. But which collapsing bank will JP Morgan and the other 'big' banks (international bankers with vested interests in the Fed according to Zeitgeist Movie) snap up for next to nothing in the coming days and weeks? Lehman Brothers?

The stock market is a farce and needs to be completely redesigned. Rumour and speculation can currently wipe billions of dollars off of a company's value. What good is that to anyone? How can capitalism survive when it is built on such fine sand?

The FTSE 100 has dropped around 18% from what it was before the "Credit Crisis" (whatever) kicked in. Why? British companies are still reporting profits, the economy is still growing and people are still spending. Why are our companies worth billions less now than they were before?

All of this nonsense started in the US, and you can bet your rapidly devaluing dollar that, when it ends, the big US banks will come out on top.
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    1. Hands0n's Avatar
        It is my belief that Capitalism as we know it is completely unsustainable. The money supply is controlled by too few for detriment of the many. How, for example, can we in the 21st century have global poverty and status that goes back more than 2,000 years.

        Nationally one can see the obscenity of the situation where the masses are controlled and influenced by the wealthy few. A whole society of these exist, almost like some kind of super Masonic Lodge and with increasing brazenness. We see these people in influence in Government, we see them in financial circles. They talk the talk, but everything is for their own benefit and to hell with the masses that actually fund their lifestyle.

        Revolution? I don't believe it, not in the wealthy nations which are havens of relative peace. When is the last time, for example, that the Britons ever took up revolutionary arms like the French did? Not since the Romans, and then we fell under their influence in no time at all.

        Compliance is not always willing. Witness China where it is ordered and enforced, and the very same separation between obscene wealth and abject poverty exists.

        Zeitgeist is a warning, a cry for help, a call to arms. But until we are globally shaken out of our complacency - and what would that take? - we are likely to continue as ever. All the while we will be told how wealthy and healthy we are, where the truth is anything but.

        How much is that £1 in your pocket worth today in comparison to 10 years, 5 years, even 2 years ago? Yet we are told that we are living in the time lowest inflation ever. But the truth is that we are facing between 40% and 60% inflation in food, fuel and other essentials.

        As a good friend of mine is oft to say "Don't piss on my back and tell me it is raining". That is precisely what we are faced with by our great and powerful on a daily basis.

        Cor Ben! Don't get me going, I'll start swearing
      • Ben's Avatar
          Yesterday HBOS shares took a massive hammering due to the, wait for it, speculation that Halifax might go under. Yeah, right, the UK's largest mortgage lender is going to go under just like that... despite the fact that nothing even remotely similar to the US sub-prime situation is happening here.

          Most of the losses recovered once it was found out that the rumour was fraud, but come on - billions of pounds can be erased from the value of our stock market on the back of hearsay? What a pathetic system.
        • Hands0n's Avatar
            Pathetic is a good choice of word, I can come up with plenty more.

            Having worked in the "pathetic system" for many a year I can safely say that what is happening now was entirely predictable. The [capitalist] world at this time is built on nothing more than foundations of sand. And it is a house of cards, at that, if I may be allowed to continue the analogy. One where rumour and [worse] speculation can see entire organisations disappeared overnight. What next, entire nations?

            There is only one winner in any of this - and that is the entrenched and already impossibly rich speculators. Look no further than the George Soros' of this world to see who I mean. These people's entire reason for living is to make money for personal gain and nothing more. Their every waking moment is spent doing only that.

            One day we will look back on these times and wonder at the primitiveness of it all.