Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24
US House Prices Trend Forecast 2024 to 2026 - 11th Oct 24
US Housing Market Analysis - Immigration Drives House Prices Higher - 30th Sep 24
Stock Market October Correction - 30th Sep 24
The Folly of Tariffs and Trade Wars - 30th Sep 24
Gold: 5 principles to help you stay ahead of price turns - 30th Sep 24
The Everything Rally will Spark multi year Bull Market - 30th Sep 24
US FIXED MORTGAGES LIMITING SUPPLY - 23rd Sep 24
US Housing Market Free Equity - 23rd Sep 24
US Rate Cut FOMO In Stock Market Correction Window - 22nd Sep 24
US State Demographics - 22nd Sep 24
Gold and Silver Shine as the Fed Cuts Rates: What’s Next? - 22nd Sep 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks:Nothing Can Topple This Market - 22nd Sep 24
US Population Growth Rate - 17th Sep 24
Are Stocks Overheating? - 17th Sep 24
Sentiment Speaks: Silver Is At A Major Turning Point - 17th Sep 24
If The Stock Market Turn Quickly, How Bad Can Things Get? - 17th Sep 24
IMMIGRATION DRIVES HOUSE PRICES HIGHER - 12th Sep 24
Global Debt Bubble - 12th Sep 24
Gold’s Outlook CPI Data - 12th Sep 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Washington Master Thieves Lecturing Wall Street Apprentice Thieves

Politics / US Politics Feb 17, 2009 - 01:49 PM GMT

By: Oxbury_Research

Politics Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleThe Thieves' Guild: What do I think of when I think of our nation's capital - Washington D.C.? The word thieves quickly comes to mind. It doesn't matter the political party. Both political parties are filled with scoundrels.


There is a famous scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . In the scene Romeo's friend, Mercutio, is stabbed by Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, and dies. As he is dying, Mercutio cries “A plague on both your houses”, meaning the feuding houses of Capulet and Montague. Just substitute Democrat and Republican for Capulet and Montague and you have my opinion on politicians.

This past week in our nation's capital, we saw what I would call a gathering of the American branch of the Thieves' Guild. For those of you not familiar with what a thieves' guild is, a thieves guild is a common feature of old-fashioned organized crime in various types of fiction.

An example would be Cervantes' short story Rinconete y Cortadillo which was set in 16 th century Seville, Spain. One common theme of these type of stories is that all thieves must join the thieves guild in order to practice their “profession”. Another common theme is that, as in any other profession, a young thief must start as an apprentice and slowly work his way to become a master thief.

This past week we saw the very experienced “master thieves”, which are called Congressmen in this country, lecturing to the “apprentice thieves”, which are called Wall Street bankers in this country. The “master thieves” were furious with the “apprentice thieves”. I think their outrage was due to their jealousy at how quickly the apprentices had mastered the art of thievery. The apprentices had outdone the master thieves in the outright brazenness and size of the theft of funds not only from American citizens, but people worldwide.

Little Erin in Wall Street-Land

The “apprentice thieves” had help, however. One of the dictionary definitions of an acolyte is as follows: one who attends or assists, a follower. The Wall Street “apprentice thieves” have been greatly aided in their massive global theft by their acolytes and apologists in the media, led by CNBC.

An example of this behavior was the Super Bowl Sunday morning appearance on NBC's Meet the Press by CNBC anchor and “star” Erin Burnett. This appearance by Erin Burnett gave a larger audience than normally would see her a chance to see how totally clueless this so-called expert really is.

In discussing the outlandish Wall Street bonuses, Erin Burnett said the following: “The taxpayer money isn't being taken and paid out in the form of bonuses. It goes in a separate pool, shall we say, a separate account for banks.”

All I can say is WOW! I bet she also believes that her payments into the Social Security system are kept safely until she retires in a locked vault with her name emblazoned on the vault. She doesn't seem to grasp the concept that the funds are all combined together into one vast pool of capital. I bet little Erin still believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy too!

In further defending Wall Street bonuses, Erin Burnett went on: “If the three of us worked for a company, your guests, and I lost $10 billion but Steve (Forbes) over there, he made a billion dollars. So overall, the company actually loses money, but Steve (Forbes) went and did his darndest for that company and he made money. So should he be paid for his work? Many reasonable people (like Erin Burnett) would conclude, yes, he should be paid for that.”

Again, all I can say is WOW! I guess Erin Burnett would call me an “unreasonable” person. So be it. Her thinking is a prime example of the twisted logic that passes for normal on Wall Street.

Let's look at the real world where the rest of us live. Let's say there is an industrial company that makes widgets. The company has fallen on hard times (much like the banks) and must declare bankruptcy. Everyone loses, NO exceptions! They don't say - “Hey, you guys on widget assembly line Z have done such a great job that we're going to pay you anyways.”

Why should employees of Wall Street firms be treated any differently than someone working for a non-Wall Street company? But Wall Street and their apologists like Erin Burnett think that they are members of a privileged class, an aristocracy. This gets back to the point I mention in many of my articles – the arrogance and sense of entitlement that pervades Wall Street.

Of course, Little Erin in Wall Street-Land is far from alone at CNBC. Among others, there is Little Larry Kudlow who claims to be an economist, but one that still believes in fairy tales like Goldilocks. Hearing the nonsense that constantly spews from his mouth, is it any wonder that the economics profession is in such disrepute?

CNBC or a Book?

So instead of watching CNBC, I think I will re-read some books that I haven't read since I was a teenager. They are the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber. Many of the adventures take place in the city of Lankhmar.

Lankhmar is described as a populous city, rife with corruption, and it is decadent and squalid in roughly equal parts. The city is ruled by an overlord and a nobility. The Thieves' Guild is also highly influential.

For some reason, that description sounds vaguely familiar to me...

Cheers,

By Tony D'Altorio

Analyst, Oxbury Research

Tony worked for more than 20 years in the investment business. Most of those years were spent with Charles Schwab & Co., both as a broker and as a trading supervisor. As a supervisor, he oversaw, at times, dozens of employees. Tony was trading supervisor during the great crash of 1987 and was responsible for millions of dollars of customers' orders.

Oxbury Research originally formed as an underground investment club, Oxbury Publishing is comprised of a wide variety of Wall Street professionals - from equity analysts to futures floor traders – all independent thinkers and all capital market veterans.

© 2009 Copyright Oxbury Research - All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Oxbury Research Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in