Was the BBC victim of a hoax? No, say the Yes Men
“Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.”
That’s what a purported London-based independent trader named Alessio Rastani told the BBC on Monday in a jaw-dropping interview that quickly went viral.
But just as quickly, rumors swirled that Rastani was actually a member of the Yes Men, a loose-knit group of merry pranksters and imposters that attempt to manipulate the media with the goal of exposing the dubious conduct of big corporations.
The Yes Men publicly denied that Rastani is a member. And the BBC said in a statement that it doesn’t think he is, either: “We’ve carried out detailed investigations and can’t find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax. He is an independent market trader and one of a range of voices we’ve had on air to talk about the recession.”
“We’ve never heard of Rastani,” the group said in a statement of its own. “He isn’t a Yes Man. He’s a real trader who is, for one reason or another, being more honest than usual.”
Way down at the bottom of the article:
For his part, Rastani says he was simply misunderstood.
“I have no idea why I’m getting this attention,” Rastani told Forbes. “I don’t think it was news. For someone to say what I said, I thought everybody already knew this kind of stuff. The big players of funds rule the world, I don’t think that was news. And what I said about making money from a crash, obviously not everybody knows about that, you can make money from a downward market.”
Rastani added: “A lot of people just got the wrong end of the foot, misunderstood what I was saying. They thought I was joyful or licking my lips about the idea of making money from people’s miseries. That’s probably the way it looked on the video. But if they watch the whole video, what I was really trying to say is people need to educate themselves about how to do that … what I was trying to say was, look, everyone should basically prepare. I was trying to be the good guy. If this market’s going to crash, then you’ve got to prepare yourself.”
Missing from the article – anyone explaining why what he said would be a hoax. Sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.
I’m not worried about the market crashing because I already spent my life savings. Half of it went to alcohol and sins of the flesh. The rest I just wasted.
(h/t imustprotest)
Like this:
Filed under: Uncategorized
It’s not news to us.
Actually, what he said at the start — euro investors fleeing to the dollar? Will the US stock market gain from a Euro crash?
They’re fleeing to US Treasuries, thus the record low interest rates. That they are fleeing to the dollar says a lot about the strength of the US. Our debt worries are largely overblown now.
Huge amounts of systemic risk went unchecked and no one has been made to account for their actions. Goldman Sachs fudged Greece’s bonds to the world markets so they could underwrite Greece’s Olympics. Now, we see the same kind of bailouts in Europe as here and sovereign debt in countries like Greece with little political or economic standing are taking it out the ass to save their banksters’ crooked practices.
This guy is just looking to make a buck from it by betting on failure that will cause chaos. He’s almost certainly for real.
The most interesting thing about this is not what he said, but the rush to discredit him as a “hoaxster”. Wonder who started those “rumors swirling”?
The headline should be “Trader tells shocking truth”
That was pretty much the headline on the original zerohedge story featuring this video.
Ah- but is Goldmann Suchs ruling the world in which the White House can’t pass 5th grade geography?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/white-house-mixes-colorado-wyoming-map-130725157.html
Is Obama smarter than a 5th grader?
LOL! Thanks- you gave me a Title for my post!
LMAO!!!! Look at the illiterate idiocy of that stooopid Alaskan Chillbilly!!!
Oh, wait…
I thought the only news worthy aspect was the fact that this young man was telling the truth. Sheesh.
If GS is ruling the world, I wish they would do a better job.
djmm
Yeah, if we’re gonna have some overlords, is it too much to ask for some fucking benign ones?
Apparently, Yes it is
never happen
The Globe and Mail has an article up today on a Swiss study comparing the behaviour of stockbrokers and psychopaths, and the psychopaths came out as more benign!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/stockbrokers-more-reckless-than-psychopaths-study/article2181048/
I prefer the term “Greedman Sucks”.
Bank of America Deathwatch: $50 Billion Securities Fraud Suit Over Merrill Acquisition
Oh dear, it appears to be a prima facie case of securities fraud.
So BoA now has three suits against them? This one about Merrill (shareholders money), the 50 state AG suit (public pension fund money), and the Fannie/Freddie suit (bondholder and their insurers who bought the crappy mortgages). Not sure BoA can survive this.
Not a hoax, but does he help or hurt the cause for reform or revolution or whatever. Below is how I commented at Yves’ place and on FB, and I stick by it.