@johnny grace – thanks for the heads up i have actually been thinkiing about these things – the scalpers are like credit cards companies and stock/bank ponzi game concept – selling hype air dreams unthinkable things – i like symbolism of scalping but nothing is what it appears to be & segue into the immigrant family vs the corp-oh-rat aparachik cronyisms that sunk the titanic like napoleon thought he was invincible when he saw that people would die for a piece of ribbon (flag) or todays $$$ honey as i see it we are in the humpty dumpty syndrome the too big to fail to big to fall to big to put the pieces together again – but the real thing i find interesting is how we all went along on this fantasy journey of “in Debt We Trust” also film by danny schechter that i also shot some of too – the stock market crash of 2008 and the depression of 2009 is not what it appears need to not treat symptoms but go deeper more systemic – we the people need to reinvent the future before its too late
enclosed original note from johnny grace
Oil ScalpersShare
Today at 2:33pm
Yesterday, 60 Minutes ran a story on the oil “speculators.” I find it curious that they’re called SPECULATORS, and not SCALPERS? A scalper buys resources with no intention of using them, or adding much, if any, value. Sporting event ticket Scalpers aren’t called speculators. Contrary to receiving government bailouts when their bets lose money, they’re, instead, sometimes jailed.
Long ago their function added liquidity, necessary when producers needed interim financing to bridge from production to final consumption. But in today’s world of wealthy global energy & food corporations, this rationalization is a vulgar & costly ruse.
Likewise, the poor immigrant family who buys more than two bags of rice to send back to their starving family overseas is portrayed as hoarding and greedy. A righteous two-bag store limit is enacted at the store, while a Speculator in the secrecy of their high-rise Chicago office hoards millions of bags, then flips em in a few hours for millions of dollars in pure profit. Virtually unregulated nor required to cover their bets when they sour, they can simply fold up their abstract corporate sub-entity and begin anew with the stroke of a pen. If they’re large enough–Too Big To Fail–their DC operatives grab billions in taxpayer cash, with no restrictions whatsoever on what they do with our money, or even a promise to tell us.
Warren Buffett’s no fool–Goldman Sachs & Morgan Stanley are invincible modern-day Midas magicians, without the pesky cost or risk structures found in entities actually producing things like food & oil. We’re welcome to own their stock, so in the end it’s all fair & legal, right?