Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), BP (BP), Total (TOT), Shell (RDS.A), Deutsche Bank (DB) and Societe Generale (SCGLY.PK) founded the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2000. ICE is an online commodities and futures marketplace. It is outside the US and operates free from the constraints of US laws. The exchange was set up to facilitate "dark pool" trading in the commodities markets. Billions of dollars are being placed on oil futures contracts at the ICE and the beauty of this scam is that they NEVER take delivery, per se. They just ratchet up the price with leveraged speculation using your TARP money. This year alone they ratcheted up the global cost of oil from $40 to $80 per barrel.
A Congressional investigation into energy trading in 2003 discovered that ICE was being used to facilitate "round-trip" trades. " Round- trip” trades occur when one firm sells energy to another and then the second firm simultaneously sells the same amount of energy back to the first company at exactly the same price. No commodity ever changes hands. But when done on an exchange, these transactions send a price signal to the market and they artificially boost revenue for the company. This is nothing more than a massive fraud, pure and simple. This is how the geniuses on Wall Street earn their big bonuses – they steal it. It is time the congress clawed back the 35 billion dollars Goldman stole through the AIG CDS scam and put the GS big wigs in jail. It is also time to save taxpayer money - shut the minimum security health clubs these crooks are sent to and send them to a maximum security prison. That might stop the fraud. http://seekingalpha.com/article/172797-the-global-oil-scam-50-times-bigger-than-madoff?source=article_sb_popular On Jul 3, 6:46 pm, Tony Gosling <[email protected]> wrote: > Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation > > Speculators set up a casino where the chips were > the stomachs of millions. What does it say about > our system that we can so casually inflict so much > pain?http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-... > Friday, 2 July 2010 > > By now, you probably think your opinion of > Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies > has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You're wrong. > There's more. It turns out that the most > destructive of all their recent acts has barely > been discussed at all. Here's the rest. This is > the story of how some of the richest people in > the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders > at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the > starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. > > It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of > 2006, food prices across the world started to > rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a > year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per > cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. > In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people – > mostly children – couldn't afford to get food any > more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. > There were riots in more than 30 countries, and > at least one government was violently overthrown. > Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously > fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, > the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, > calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions." > > Related articles > Goldman denies its collateral demands led to collapse of insurance giant > AIGhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/goldman-denies-its-co... > > Earlier this year I was in Ethiopia, one of the > worst-hit countries, and people there remember > the food crisis as if they had been struck by a > tsunami. "My children stopped growing," a woman > my age called Abiba Getaneh, told me. "I felt > like battery acid had been poured into my stomach > as I starved. I took my two daughters out of > school and got into debt. If it had gone on much > longer, I think my baby would have died." > > Most of the explanations we were given at the > time have turned out to be false. It didn't > happen because supply fell: the International > Grain Council says global production of wheat > actually increased during that period, for > example. It isn't because demand grew either: as > Professor Jayati Ghosh of the Centre for Economic > Studies in New Delhi has shown, demand actually > fell by 3 per cent. Other factors – like the rise > of biofuels, and the spike in the oil price – > made a contribution, but they aren't enough on > their own to explain such a violent shift. > > To understand the biggest cause, you have to > plough through some concepts that will make your > head ache – but not half as much as they made the poor world's stomachs ache. > > For over a century, farmers in wealthy countries > have been able to engage in a process where they > protect themselves against risk. Farmer Giles can > agree in January to sell his crop to a trader in > August at a fixed price. If he has a great > summer, he'll lose some cash, but if there's a > lousy summer or the global price collapses, he'll > do well from the deal. When this process was > tightly regulated and only companies with a > direct interest in the field could get involved, it worked. > > Then, through the 1990s, Goldman Sachs and others > lobbied hard and the regulations were abolished. > Suddenly, these contracts were turned into > "derivatives" that could be bought and sold among > traders who had nothing to do with agriculture. A > market in "food speculation" was born. > > So Farmer Giles still agrees to sell his crop in > advance to a trader for £10,000. But now, that > contract can be sold on to speculators, who treat > the contract itself as an object of potential > wealth. Goldman Sachs can buy it and sell it on > for £20,000 to Deutsche Bank, who sell it on for > £30,000 to Merrill Lynch – and on and on until it > seems to bear almost no relationship to Farmer Giles's crop at all. > > If this seems mystifying, it is. John Lanchester, > in his superb guide to the world of finance, > Whoops! Why Everybody Owes Everyone and No One > Can Pay, explains: "Finance, like other forms of > human behaviour, underwent a change in the 20th > century, a shift equivalent to the emergence of > modernism in the arts – a break with common > sense, a turn towards self-referentiality and > abstraction and notions that couldn't be > explained in workaday English." Poetry found its > break with realism when T S Eliot wrote "The > Wasteland". Finance found its Wasteland moment in > the 1970s, when it began to be dominated by > complex financial instruments that even the > people selling them didn't fully understand. > > So what has this got to do with the bread on > Abiba's plate? Until deregulation, the price for > food was set by the forces of supply and demand > for food itself. (This was already deeply > imperfect: it left a billion people hungry.) But > after deregulation, it was no longer just a > market in food. It became, at the same time, a > market in food contracts based on theoretical > future crops – and the speculators drove the price through the roof. > > Here's how it happened. In 2006, financial > speculators like Goldmans pulled out of the > collapsing US real estate market. They reckoned > food prices would stay steady or rise while the > rest of the economy tanked, so they switched > their funds there. Suddenly, the world's > frightened investors stampeded on to this ground. > > So while the supply and demand of food stayed > pretty much the same, the supply and demand for > derivatives based on food massively rose – which > meant the all-rolled-into-one price shot up, and > the starvation began. The bubble only burst in > March 2008 when the situation got so bad in the > US that the speculators had to slash their > spending to cover their losses back home. > > When I asked Merrill Lynch's spokesman to comment > on the charge of causing mass hunger, he said: > "Huh. I didn't know about that." He later emailed > to say: "I am going to decline comment." Deutsche > Bank also refused to comment. Goldman Sachs were > more detailed, saying they sold their index in > early 2007 and pointing out that "serious > analyses ... have concluded index funds did not > cause a bubble in commodity futures prices", > offering as evidence a statement by the OECD. > > How do we know this is wrong? As Professor Ghosh > points out, some vital crops are not traded on > the futures markets, including millet, cassava, > and potatoes. Their price rose a little during > this period – but only a fraction as much as the > ones affected by speculation. Her research shows > that speculation was "the main cause" of the rise. > > So it has come to this. The world's wealthiest > speculators set up a casino where the chips were > the stomachs of hundreds of millions of innocent > people. They gambled on increasing starvation, > and won. Their Wasteland moment created a real > wasteland. What does it say about our political > and economic system that we can so casually inflict so much pain? > > If we don't re-regulate, it is only a matter of > time before this all happens again. How many > people would it kill next time? The moves to > restore the pre-1990s rules on commodities > trading have been stunningly sluggish. In the US, > the House has passed some regulation, but there > are fears that the Senate – drenched in > speculator-donations – may dilute it into > meaninglessness. The EU is lagging far behind > even this, while in Britain, where most of this > "trade" takes place, advocacy groups are worried > that David Cameron's government will block reform > entirely to please his own friends and donors in the City. > > Only one force can stop another > speculation-starvation-bubble. The decent people > in developed countries need to shout louder than > the lobbyists from Goldman Sachs. The World > Development Movement is launching a week of > pressure this summer as crucial decisions on this > are taken: text WDM to 82055 to find out what you can do. > > The last time I spoke to her, Abiba said: "We > can't go through that another time. Please – make > sure they never, never do that to us again." > > http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-... > > +44 (0)7786 952037begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +44 (0)7786 > 952037 end_of_the_skype_highlightinghttp://tonygosling.blip.tv/http://www.thisweek.org.uk/http://www.911forum.org.uk/ > "Capitalism is institutionalised bribery." > _________________www.abolishwar.org.uk > <http://www.elementary.org.uk>www.elementary.org.ukwww.public-interest.co.ukwww.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Bristol+Broadband+Co-operative > <http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf > > "The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic > poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung > <https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/ -- Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield? There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PEPIS" group. Please feel free to forward it to anyone who might be interested particularly your political representatives, journalists and spiritual leaders/dudes. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pepis?hl=en
