General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Real Money-Making Methods of the Super-Rich Are Far From Praiseworthy
http://www.alternet.org/economy/real-money-making-methods-super-rich-are-far-praiseworthy1. Betting on Food Prices to Rise
Chris Hedges noted that Goldman Sachs commodities index "is the most heavily traded in the world. The company hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve." Numerous sources agree that speculation drives up commodity prices. Wheat, for example, rose in price from $105 to $481 in just eight years.
2. Betting on Mortgages to Fail
In 2007 hedge fund manager John Paulson conspired with Goldman Sachs to create packages of risky subprime mortgages, so that in anticipation of a housing crash he could use other people's money to bet against his personally designed sure-to-fail financial instruments. His successful bet against American households paid him $3.7 billion.
***SNIP
3. Renting Houses Back to People Who Lost Them
Private equity firms like Blackstone are buying up foreclosures and renting them back at higher rates while waiting for home prices to rise. As absentee landlords they have little interest in long-term community issues.
***SNIP
4. Being a Banker
Almost all of the big names have participated. HSBC Bank laundered money for Mexican drug cartels. Countrywide and Wells Fargo targeted Blacks and Hispanics for unaffordable subprime loans. GE Capital skimmed billions of dollars from its customers. Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase hid billions of dollars of bonuses and losses and loans from investors. Banks fixed interest rates in the LIBOR scandal, and illegally foreclosed on millions of homeowners in the robo-signing scandal.
chervilant
(8,267 posts)will spend time in jail.
Not one.
(Have I mentioned lately that banks always, always, always, always -- always times infinity -- always get their money?!?)
xchrom
(108,903 posts)(That is understood by those who are paying attention...)
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)The 1% is simply gracious enough to allow those of us who are not among their elite group to on occasion use some of that money in order to make more of it for them.
TRoN33
(769 posts)people the hardest of the hard questions before God allow them to walk through the Gate of Saint Peter. I'm not religious person and I believe in afterlife strongly, oh I can imagine bankers' nervousness on their own deathbed.
safeinOhio
(32,690 posts)So, where are the Bible thumpers?
tclambert
(11,087 posts)Like Scrooge said to Marley's ghost. And Marley shook his chains and shouted back at Scrooge: "Business! Mankind was my business! The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
Our business people seem to have never learned that lesson. We need a Charles Dickens for this age to remind us of the evils of greed, of horrible working conditions, of starvation wages, of child labor, of slavery to debt, of indifference and cruelty toward the less fortunate.
Our wealthy elites act as if they really believe of the poor "if they are like to die, perhaps they should do so, and decrease the surplus population."
IronLionZion
(45,462 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)but since they ARE bankers, it's still called theft, extortion, usury, but it's not prosecuted.
siligut
(12,272 posts)And according to the Snowden revelations, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group is there to thwart any competition from non-approved entities.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)Ian Simmons and Liesel Pritzker Simmons, at left, supporters of impact investing, at the next-generation conference at the White House last month.
JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)Tells it like it really is, not as Republicans want you to believe. They seem to be under the impression that 99% of rich people get their money through honest, hard work and 1% through inheritance.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)I only hope people wake up and take up some understanding about what we are undergoing. What really gets me is that they are doing this right in front of everyone with no shame at all. I mean ...for one...our government bailed out these parasitic sociopaths ...and for two ...our economy is now dependent on war.
IronLionZion
(45,462 posts)The food prices issue bothers me a lot. People need to eat. They're taking advantage.
These assholes are not building anything. They're not providing any service. They are not creating jobs. They are not making any sort of contribution to benefit society in any way. They are not "investors". They are speculators.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)- paraphrased from Oliver Stone's Wallstreet. He painted with some broad strokes, but he wasn't wrong.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/quotes
JEB
(4,748 posts)The rich are so blinded by their own greed, they cannot see the suffering of other human beings nor the hollowed out sickly society from which they are trying to suck the last few drops of blood. They can not see their own fate approaching them.