🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan Espen <dan1...@gmail.com> writes:
> Yep, Obama tried to destroy the country by raising gas prices.

??? CFTC use to have rule that players needed significant position in
commodity to play because they found speculators resulted in wild,
irrational price swings ... then 19 "secret" letters went out to
speculators allowing them to play ... resulting in the huge spike in oil
& gas summer of 2008 (speculators pump & dump on the way up and then
short on the way down, their specialty is wild volitility that the
manage).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_energy_crisis
https://blog.euromonitor.com/2008/08/special-report-the-1979-vs-2008-oil-spike.html
gas hit over $4/gal
https://www.treehugger.com/cars/2008-us-gas-price-year-in-review.html

Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power
Grab in American History
https://www.amazon.com/Griftopia-Machines-Vampire-Breaking-America-ebook/dp/B003F3FJS2/
The Great American Bubble Machine
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
Wikileaks: Speculators Helped Cause Oil Bubble
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wikileaks-cables-show-speculators-behind-oil-bubble-20110526

2011, member of congress released to the public/press the transactions
showing the speculators responsible for the wild volitility. The funny
thing is that the press then chastised the member of congress for
violation of corporate privacy (aka corporations are people) ... rather
than criticising the speculators. post from 2011:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#76 FIA shocked and outraged after Senator leaks oil trading data
article
https://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=22911

Explaining his decision to leak, Sanders says: "This report clearly
shows that in the summer of 2008 when gas prices spiked to more than $4
a gallon, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other speculators on Wall
Street dominated the crude oil futures market causing tremendous damage
to the entire economy. The CFTC has kept this information hidden from
the American public for nearly three years. That is an outrage."

... snip ...

2011 Congressional Resarch Service (at moment website isn't answering)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service_reports
Hedge Fund Speculation and Oil Price
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41902.pdf
and: Speculation, Fundamentals, and Oil Prices
https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=718960
more
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/

posts mentioning Griftopia
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#griftopia

turns out some of the same players were responsible for the economic
mess. Originally thye paid for triple-A rating on toxic CDOs
(securitized mortgages) when the rating agencies knew weren't worth
triple-A (from Oct2008 congressional testimony into the role that rating
agencies played). That initially allowed them to start doing
no-documentation, liar loans, securitize, pay for triple-A and unload as
fast as they could be made (eliminating any need to care about
borrowers' qualifications and/or loan quality) ... in part opening up
selling to investors that are restricted to only dealing in "safe"
investments ... like big pension funds (significant contribution to
being able to do over $27T 2001-2008).

Then they find that the can design toxic CDOs to fail, pay for triple-A,
sell to customers and then take out CDS gambling bets that they would
fail ... now they cared about loan quality ... but not in good way.  The
largest holder of these CDS gambling bets was AIG and negotiating to pay
off at 50cents on the dolloar, when the SECTREAS steps in and has them
sign a document that they can't sue those making the CDS gambling bets
and take TARP funds to pay off at face value. The largest recipient of
TARP funds is AIG and the largest recipient of face value payoffs is the
firm formally headed by SECTREAS.

posts mentioning economic mess
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#economic.mess
posts mentioning (triple-A rated) toxic CDOs
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#toxic.cdo


-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970