Take note, those on the left. Your small businesses could be burning all summer long and the "leaders" didn't care. But the minute the small guy fucks with Wall Street, they are immediately un-personed.
Winning the election wasn't the big victory you thought it was.
The time is ripe for another OWS/Tea Party movement against the banks.
January 27th and 28th, 2021 saw the Washington Post at last totally divorce itself from what used to be called “the news”. I have the Post delivered to my door every day. On the morning of January 27, I eagerly opened my copy to see what the Post had reported on one of the biggest if not the biggest news stories of the week, the revolt of the small retail investor against the hedge fund giants. To wit the meteoric rise of shares in GameStop which cost several hedge funds who had shorted the stock billions of dollars. A rare, rare victory of the small guy against the titans of the financial world. I couldn’t find a single mention of the story in the paper! Not on the front page and even not in the “business” section. I assumed I had missed the story and went back through the paper page by page. Nope, it wasn’t there. Not one word! In the real world of journalism this would have led to the firing of the editor. But we work under different rules now.
I can imagine the editors not knowing how to play this news. Yes, they could have simply stated the plain facts; the stock moved how much, and hedge funds lost so much, but they didn’t. News is about so much more than facts these days. The dilemma was this; clearly it was at least a symbolic victory for the small guy and a demonstration of a fearsome new power in the financial world and the Post staff and management saw themselves as champions of the little guy. On the other hand, it was a near mortal blow to some of the captains of the industry who have now become (at least for public consumption) friends of the Democratic party and fierce enemies of the guy who used to be president. (Don’t blame me for bringing him into the story, the Post did that on their own) And besides the Post is a business that has had its ups and downs in recent years, and it doesn’t pay to make enemies of these guys, not to mention the owner of the Post, Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s richest men and has much more in common, if not outright friendship with said titans. So the Post decided to punt and skip the story altogether. Perhaps it took them a day to consult with Mr. Bezos and others in the industry and in the world of politics to see how to spin the story. Oh, how I would like to be a fly on the wall of the editor’s office! I am sure there was some real debate going on! I am sure the Post’s woke staff had plenty to say about this story.
Move to Thursday the 28th. The story framing is complete, and it comes down on the side of the elites. Now it’s a front-page story. In a very long two-page article the Post plays the role of the hedge fund toady and defender. The small investor is now “a flash mob with money”. And we know what sinister connotations the word “mob” has taken on in the past few weeks. As crazy as it seems the article doesn’t mention the role of short sellers (who smell bad) until the twentieth paragraph on an inside page and doesn’t mention the specific hedge fund until the twenty-ninth paragraph when this information was all over the news. Unbelievable! The Post preferred to call the hedge funds “big Wall Street firms, “wealthy institutions”, and “big institutions”.
By late Thursday the political/financial industry dealt the small investor a savage blow in a naked show of force. Halting the purchase of GameStop shares but not their sale meant the market could go only one way, down, saving hedge funds from losing billions more if not saving some from total destruction. If this isn’t the definition of market manipulation, the word has no meaning. It will be interesting to see how the liberal mainstream media plays this story in coming days. They can’t support both sides. At least we know where the Post stands. The story is not over.
This might be the moment when 90% of the population realizes 10% of the population is purposely crushing them while keeping them occupied with race and lockdowns and focused on who is wearing a D or R on their jersey. Cmon , forget the “team” you think you’re on and wake up and understand Politicians , MSM , and the elite financial class want to Hoover up all your money and then stub you out like a cigarette and have a good chuckle when they’re done.
It's been interesting watching Democrats (except for AOC - I actually agree with her on something, partially) line up to demand "something be done" about all these day traders, and Republicans defend the day traders. Methinks we may be in the midst of a political realignment in this country like we've not seen since FDR ...
What's incredible is that the media - and popular focus as result - hone in on "manipulation" by the /r/Wallstreetbets forum, and decry that, interspersed with moralizing about ordinary people gambling not knowing what they are doing.
What is more galling - should be more galling - is this: Gamespot is just part of the story. This morning (January 28, 2021) several retail brokers blocked the Buy button on a number of stocks with high short interest: this included BB, AMC and others. During this blackout of these stocks (for purchase and not for selling, you could still sell), hedge funds were able to unwind their short positions.
It's being said that Citadel, which bailed out Melvin Capital (the GME loser), owns a stake in Robinhood and also works with TDA and Schwab.
So the story here is that hedge funds called up their business partners in the retail brokerages and said, don't let people buy this for a period of time. So they could protect themselves, at the expense of retail. CNBC dutifully reminds us that retail are imbeciles, and CNN mentioned that the subreddit has white supremacists on it.
It's a mad world, but through all of this insanity there's a breadcrumb that should be followed.
Here's the question for Taibbi and whoever reads this: should we expect the general public to further lose faith in Wall St., the media and government (the SEC) after this?
The real story isn't who makes money or whether the hedgies took a mortal blow (they didn't), but rather what this incident exposes. It shows the corporate media as the sleazy little satraps to money they are. It shows the Wall Streeters exposed as bullshit artists, as they hilariously try to justify their position in society. But most of all, the joy being experienced by millions of Americans right now shows just how powerful the anti-neoliberal movement really is. Or at least could be, if it was harnessed properly. People know they're being screwed, and the reactions to this story show they know who is screwing them.
Aaron Swartz was a man who was a part of a whole lot of incredibly and visionary things, including:
- He created Reddit
- He helped make a thing called "RSS" which helps people learn all the stuff they want to without going to all the different websites that that takes (for that Obama government maximally persecuted him)
He was brutally prosecuted by Obama’s attack dog, Wall Street layer and Obama’s Attorney General, despicable Eric Holder, whose MO was to pile a mountain of charges on his many victims to push them in prolonged ultra-expensive trials.
The noble genius, Aaron Swartz, has been driven to suicide by Obama’s administration.
It's worth remembering how George Soros made his first big money...shorting the British pound against the ERM (predecessor to the Euro) in 1992. Soros made a billion - and screwed the entire British economy.
Mr. Taibbi writes that in 2008 "The free-market purists at the banks begged the government to stop the music," and then goes on to post a litany of examples where the politicians and bankers worked in tandem to loot the American people and save their own hides.
The eastern Wall Street bankers have never, since the first securities were traded there, been "free market purists," quite the opposite. The myth that Wall Street fought against the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank (that ghoul Woodrow Wilson's "Christmas gift to the American people") is just that -a myth. And the Federal Reserve Bank, especially since it was able to shed the gold standard that handcuffed the really lunatic actions it now routinely imposes, has been everything those Wall Street bankers had ever hoped it could be.
Using it they have crushed all competition (there are vastly fewer independent banks in America compared to 1913), taken market share (which was moving to the MidWest prior to 1913) and centered it in New York City (the only Fed branch which always has a vote at FOMC meetings and where all its market interventions are put into action) and siphoned untold trillions of unearned wealth via inflation into the pockets of the bankers and politicians. (Who do you think is monetizing the trillions of federal deficits each year?)
Everyone in the Kool Kids Klub will lament the "mob" that screwed the hedge funds who shorted GameStop, but the real anger should be directed at the Federal Reserve System and the politicians who control it via their banker friends. That is the source of your economic misery. Unlike what that clodhopper William Jennings Bryan said, the working man was not nailed to a "cross of gold." Gold is a shield that protects the working man. There's a reason the elite in the Kool Kids Klub hate gold with a passion.
Who wrote the article "Pandemic Villains: Robinhood"; Matt Taibbi or one of the pearl clutchers he mocks here?
Taibbi on Dec 9th: "What could possibly go wrong with bringing more people into the stock market? A lot, as it turns out."
Taibbi today: "The only thing 'dangerous' about a gang of Reddit investors blowing up hedge funds is that some of us reading about it might die of laughter."
One of these was one of your worst takes (the first one) and one of these was the correct take (the latter). Together, though, it's a comedy of hypocrisy just as the one you mock here.
I had a bit of a realization watching this coverage: seeing a couple of different attempts to link the "yahoo! screw the rich guys" rhetoric of the WSB gang to the alt-right and other members of Americas whacko fringe, I realized that that goofy-ass nerdballs who occupy most of the bylines in this country are just made very nervous by that-which-comes-from-the-internet.
And so, much like mapmakers from the era of the explorer, when they reach a part of the playing field that they can't wrap their heads around they write: "Here there be dragons"
Only the language they use for that now is "rumored links to the alt-right."
Yep, yep and yep. I do not normally get caught up in internet media news phenomena, but I agree that this is truly hilarious. I have barely been able to get work down today as I exchange emails with friends over how perfect a send-up of the whole financial system this is, as it has devolved over my lifetime. Anyone paying attention who still believes that there is a shred of credibility left in the structure of our political economy must either be delusional or have a hefty dose of covid-brain.
I think the government reaction to this will say more about America's political system than any other event. Obama lost a lot of credibility after 2008 by allowing Wall Street to get away with theft.
If the Biden administration potects Wall Street again the democrats are dead.
As I was reading this article, it dawned on me that Mass. Secretary of State Bill Galvin was the guy who stiffed the production company I worked for in 1990. Galvin was running for Treasurer, and this was my first post-college gig, so I didn't know any better and was excited to work with a politician. We shot some spots with him (I remember thinking he was a human eyebrow) and he wound up never paying us.
Take note, those on the left. Your small businesses could be burning all summer long and the "leaders" didn't care. But the minute the small guy fucks with Wall Street, they are immediately un-personed.
Winning the election wasn't the big victory you thought it was.
The time is ripe for another OWS/Tea Party movement against the banks.
January 27th and 28th, 2021 saw the Washington Post at last totally divorce itself from what used to be called “the news”. I have the Post delivered to my door every day. On the morning of January 27, I eagerly opened my copy to see what the Post had reported on one of the biggest if not the biggest news stories of the week, the revolt of the small retail investor against the hedge fund giants. To wit the meteoric rise of shares in GameStop which cost several hedge funds who had shorted the stock billions of dollars. A rare, rare victory of the small guy against the titans of the financial world. I couldn’t find a single mention of the story in the paper! Not on the front page and even not in the “business” section. I assumed I had missed the story and went back through the paper page by page. Nope, it wasn’t there. Not one word! In the real world of journalism this would have led to the firing of the editor. But we work under different rules now.
I can imagine the editors not knowing how to play this news. Yes, they could have simply stated the plain facts; the stock moved how much, and hedge funds lost so much, but they didn’t. News is about so much more than facts these days. The dilemma was this; clearly it was at least a symbolic victory for the small guy and a demonstration of a fearsome new power in the financial world and the Post staff and management saw themselves as champions of the little guy. On the other hand, it was a near mortal blow to some of the captains of the industry who have now become (at least for public consumption) friends of the Democratic party and fierce enemies of the guy who used to be president. (Don’t blame me for bringing him into the story, the Post did that on their own) And besides the Post is a business that has had its ups and downs in recent years, and it doesn’t pay to make enemies of these guys, not to mention the owner of the Post, Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s richest men and has much more in common, if not outright friendship with said titans. So the Post decided to punt and skip the story altogether. Perhaps it took them a day to consult with Mr. Bezos and others in the industry and in the world of politics to see how to spin the story. Oh, how I would like to be a fly on the wall of the editor’s office! I am sure there was some real debate going on! I am sure the Post’s woke staff had plenty to say about this story.
Move to Thursday the 28th. The story framing is complete, and it comes down on the side of the elites. Now it’s a front-page story. In a very long two-page article the Post plays the role of the hedge fund toady and defender. The small investor is now “a flash mob with money”. And we know what sinister connotations the word “mob” has taken on in the past few weeks. As crazy as it seems the article doesn’t mention the role of short sellers (who smell bad) until the twentieth paragraph on an inside page and doesn’t mention the specific hedge fund until the twenty-ninth paragraph when this information was all over the news. Unbelievable! The Post preferred to call the hedge funds “big Wall Street firms, “wealthy institutions”, and “big institutions”.
By late Thursday the political/financial industry dealt the small investor a savage blow in a naked show of force. Halting the purchase of GameStop shares but not their sale meant the market could go only one way, down, saving hedge funds from losing billions more if not saving some from total destruction. If this isn’t the definition of market manipulation, the word has no meaning. It will be interesting to see how the liberal mainstream media plays this story in coming days. They can’t support both sides. At least we know where the Post stands. The story is not over.
This might be the moment when 90% of the population realizes 10% of the population is purposely crushing them while keeping them occupied with race and lockdowns and focused on who is wearing a D or R on their jersey. Cmon , forget the “team” you think you’re on and wake up and understand Politicians , MSM , and the elite financial class want to Hoover up all your money and then stub you out like a cigarette and have a good chuckle when they’re done.
It's been interesting watching Democrats (except for AOC - I actually agree with her on something, partially) line up to demand "something be done" about all these day traders, and Republicans defend the day traders. Methinks we may be in the midst of a political realignment in this country like we've not seen since FDR ...
What's incredible is that the media - and popular focus as result - hone in on "manipulation" by the /r/Wallstreetbets forum, and decry that, interspersed with moralizing about ordinary people gambling not knowing what they are doing.
What is more galling - should be more galling - is this: Gamespot is just part of the story. This morning (January 28, 2021) several retail brokers blocked the Buy button on a number of stocks with high short interest: this included BB, AMC and others. During this blackout of these stocks (for purchase and not for selling, you could still sell), hedge funds were able to unwind their short positions.
It's being said that Citadel, which bailed out Melvin Capital (the GME loser), owns a stake in Robinhood and also works with TDA and Schwab.
So the story here is that hedge funds called up their business partners in the retail brokerages and said, don't let people buy this for a period of time. So they could protect themselves, at the expense of retail. CNBC dutifully reminds us that retail are imbeciles, and CNN mentioned that the subreddit has white supremacists on it.
It's a mad world, but through all of this insanity there's a breadcrumb that should be followed.
Here's the question for Taibbi and whoever reads this: should we expect the general public to further lose faith in Wall St., the media and government (the SEC) after this?
The real story isn't who makes money or whether the hedgies took a mortal blow (they didn't), but rather what this incident exposes. It shows the corporate media as the sleazy little satraps to money they are. It shows the Wall Streeters exposed as bullshit artists, as they hilariously try to justify their position in society. But most of all, the joy being experienced by millions of Americans right now shows just how powerful the anti-neoliberal movement really is. Or at least could be, if it was harnessed properly. People know they're being screwed, and the reactions to this story show they know who is screwing them.
On Aaron Swartz and REDDIT
Aaron Swartz was a man who was a part of a whole lot of incredibly and visionary things, including:
- He created Reddit
- He helped make a thing called "RSS" which helps people learn all the stuff they want to without going to all the different websites that that takes (for that Obama government maximally persecuted him)
He was brutally prosecuted by Obama’s attack dog, Wall Street layer and Obama’s Attorney General, despicable Eric Holder, whose MO was to pile a mountain of charges on his many victims to push them in prolonged ultra-expensive trials.
The noble genius, Aaron Swartz, has been driven to suicide by Obama’s administration.
It's worth remembering how George Soros made his first big money...shorting the British pound against the ERM (predecessor to the Euro) in 1992. Soros made a billion - and screwed the entire British economy.
Mr. Taibbi writes that in 2008 "The free-market purists at the banks begged the government to stop the music," and then goes on to post a litany of examples where the politicians and bankers worked in tandem to loot the American people and save their own hides.
The eastern Wall Street bankers have never, since the first securities were traded there, been "free market purists," quite the opposite. The myth that Wall Street fought against the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank (that ghoul Woodrow Wilson's "Christmas gift to the American people") is just that -a myth. And the Federal Reserve Bank, especially since it was able to shed the gold standard that handcuffed the really lunatic actions it now routinely imposes, has been everything those Wall Street bankers had ever hoped it could be.
Using it they have crushed all competition (there are vastly fewer independent banks in America compared to 1913), taken market share (which was moving to the MidWest prior to 1913) and centered it in New York City (the only Fed branch which always has a vote at FOMC meetings and where all its market interventions are put into action) and siphoned untold trillions of unearned wealth via inflation into the pockets of the bankers and politicians. (Who do you think is monetizing the trillions of federal deficits each year?)
Everyone in the Kool Kids Klub will lament the "mob" that screwed the hedge funds who shorted GameStop, but the real anger should be directed at the Federal Reserve System and the politicians who control it via their banker friends. That is the source of your economic misery. Unlike what that clodhopper William Jennings Bryan said, the working man was not nailed to a "cross of gold." Gold is a shield that protects the working man. There's a reason the elite in the Kool Kids Klub hate gold with a passion.
Who wrote the article "Pandemic Villains: Robinhood"; Matt Taibbi or one of the pearl clutchers he mocks here?
Taibbi on Dec 9th: "What could possibly go wrong with bringing more people into the stock market? A lot, as it turns out."
Taibbi today: "The only thing 'dangerous' about a gang of Reddit investors blowing up hedge funds is that some of us reading about it might die of laughter."
One of these was one of your worst takes (the first one) and one of these was the correct take (the latter). Together, though, it's a comedy of hypocrisy just as the one you mock here.
I had a bit of a realization watching this coverage: seeing a couple of different attempts to link the "yahoo! screw the rich guys" rhetoric of the WSB gang to the alt-right and other members of Americas whacko fringe, I realized that that goofy-ass nerdballs who occupy most of the bylines in this country are just made very nervous by that-which-comes-from-the-internet.
And so, much like mapmakers from the era of the explorer, when they reach a part of the playing field that they can't wrap their heads around they write: "Here there be dragons"
Only the language they use for that now is "rumored links to the alt-right."
Yep, yep and yep. I do not normally get caught up in internet media news phenomena, but I agree that this is truly hilarious. I have barely been able to get work down today as I exchange emails with friends over how perfect a send-up of the whole financial system this is, as it has devolved over my lifetime. Anyone paying attention who still believes that there is a shred of credibility left in the structure of our political economy must either be delusional or have a hefty dose of covid-brain.
Occupy Wall Street, for real this time.
I think the government reaction to this will say more about America's political system than any other event. Obama lost a lot of credibility after 2008 by allowing Wall Street to get away with theft.
If the Biden administration potects Wall Street again the democrats are dead.
As I was reading this article, it dawned on me that Mass. Secretary of State Bill Galvin was the guy who stiffed the production company I worked for in 1990. Galvin was running for Treasurer, and this was my first post-college gig, so I didn't know any better and was excited to work with a politician. We shot some spots with him (I remember thinking he was a human eyebrow) and he wound up never paying us.
Anyone else feeling warm and fuzzy inside right now?