How Goldman Sachs schemed your money out of... Everything?

[Tribunal]

Do that in RL and you get a raise, but do something similar in WoW and you get banned for manipulating the market. The morals in WoW are superior to the morals in the US market, apparently.

They have to be... it's a much smaller market so any one individual actor/actions can have a much greater effect.

Besides, you're overstating the case in WoW by quite a bit. Someone can have quite a bit of market share and control and be well within the rules. Even price-fixing, to a degree, happens without suspensions.

[Sykol]

Corporations gonna corp. Not really anything new here, and about a million other companies doing similar things to get uppity about. I just don't care enough about billionaires making a few extra dollars to worry.

[Deleted]

So was slavery at one point.

Thank you for stating the obvious but missing the point altogether.

The poster didn't say the practice was illegal, he said the practice was being used to get around the relevant laws to create the very scenario those laws were erected to prevent. There is a key, and very obvious, difference between the two.

Legal reform is necessary from time to time to combat modern crimes and meet the needs of modern society. This process begins with people talking about it and reading about it. Guess which one you failed at?

Yes Timmy you failed at reading. Reading good. Not reading and stating the obvious in an ignorant one-liner bad. Ignorance bad. Reading good. Hope you learned something here Timmy.

The irony here is the fact that it's legal is the amusing point, not a justification. Furthermore, the core point of your utterly random post is flawed. How would I know that this was entirely legal without having read both the article and the legislation itself?

[SodiumChloride]

I'm laughing.

Laughing because I'm utter stumped how something this absurd is allowed to happen ...

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Corporations gonna corp. Not really anything new here, and about a million other companies doing similar things to get uppity about. I just don't care enough about billionaires making a few extra dollars to worry.

Serial killers gonna kill. Not really anything new here and about a million other murderers doing similar things to get uppity about. I just don't care enough about serial killers killing a few more people to worry.

[Bad Ashe]

2 words:

career politicians.

keyword CAREER.

/thread.

[Sykol]

I'm laughing.

Laughing because I'm utter stumped how something this absurd is allowed to happen ...

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Serial killers gonna kill. Not really anything new here and about a million other murderers doing similar things to get uppity about. I just don't care enough about serial killers killing a few more people to worry.

Totes the same thing. I'm glad reading comprehension around here is still the same great standard it's always been.

Police don't actively try to bring down corporations. You don't write to your congressman and try to have cold cases solved. I fail to see the similarity here.

[Deleted]

LOOOOOL the remark of the woman in the video. They actually did fund sex slavery.

Not on purpose but they did.

That said, for more than six years Goldman has held a significant stake in a company notorious for ties to sex trafficking, and it sat on the company’s board for four of those years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/op...ing.html?_r=3&

[Theodon]

You took that way out in left field. My point is that the reason people make threads like this and talk about things like this on Facebook is because they want to feel like they are the smart guy in the barbershop or the informed guy at the workplace water cooler.... to a bunch of strangers on the internet.

In more recent generations, it was very fashionable for rich folk to sit around in the parlor and debate pressing issues that they never intended to do anything about. The only intention was to impress the room with their social awareness or shame someone who didn't agree with the issue. The internet provides this platform to your everyday joe-schmoe.

There are people on this very board with 20k+ posts that this is one of the only things they spend their free-time doing. I'd be interested to see how many causes they've actually started or finished.

Are you going to do anything to change this situation that has got you so annoyed that you felt the need to let everyone know, just as the people in this thread are doing and the people in the other threads you are highlighting in your post? You've gone off on a total rant about people ranting about issues in the news, and mentioned they won't do anything about it whilst you yourself won't do anything about it beyond what the people you are ranting about will do.

You are, in essence, ranting at yourself right now.

[SodiumChloride]

Totes the same thing. I'm glad reading comprehension around here is still the same great standard it's always been.

Police don't actively try to bring down corporations. You don't write to your congressman and try to have cold cases solved. I fail to see the similarity here.

LOL. The pot calling the kettle black here. I think you are missing the point.

Just because millions of other companies are doing morally bankrupt acts, leaching off society, doesn't mean you should just throw up your arms, give up and allow it.

What kind of ridiculous logic is this?

My "parody" is to illustrate just how absurd you position is.

[Tribunal]

You took that way out in left field. My point is that the reason people make threads like this and talk about things like this on Facebook is because they want to feel like they are the smart guy in the barbershop or the informed guy at the workplace water cooler.... to a bunch of strangers on the internet.

In more recent generations, it was very fashionable for rich folk to sit around in the parlor and debate pressing issues that they never intended to do anything about. The only intention was to impress the room with their social awareness or shame someone who didn't agree with the issue. The internet provides this platform to your everyday joe-schmoe.

There are people on this very board with 20k+ posts that this is one of the only things they spend their free-time doing. I'd be interested to see how many causes they've actually started or finished.

So how is you pointing out their lack of follow-through any different? How many people who do follow their words with actions have you supported with money or time?

My prime point was that it's a discussion for discussion's sake, ultimately. I don't think it's solely for the ulterior motive of impressing people, especially on a site like this (non-real names, and really, for most people, they don't have any famous online identity either). Sometimes people can simply find discussion interesting or fruitful.

My secondary point was that many people who discuss these things do take action, even if it is as little action as voting based on the general amount of regulation and control you think is a appropriate for an economy. Yes, that's a very very small action in the grand scheme of things, but it would be hard for most of us to do much more than that as an individual unless someone's resorting to violence.

And ultimately, voting is more action in either direction (pro or con) than someone complaining that people are discussing a relevant current issue.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Corruption is destructive yes but Apathy is far more destructive than anything that exists.

[Deleted]

Edward Snowden claimed by some users here to act solely on behalf of his "Virtual Life" with 15k posts.......wont change anything.

[Vasti]

Surprise? You should have put theese people on the guillotine during the financial crisis. Nothing has been done to the derivatives market regulations either.

Im really getting tired of this shit. Everyone knows that the financial sector(Not only in US) operates in numerous immoral ways to the detriment of it´s own country and the entire world only to fill it´s own pockets.

Well you do have the Dodd Frank act and EMIR coming into action.
Also, what they are doing is legal. If anyone is to blame it should be the people that make the regulations which allow for such practices. Goldman SAchs is a company their goal is profit, not high morals. And if they didn´t do it, some other company would, actually almost every company would if they had the means and know-how. You can't bank on company moral, that is why we have regulations. Don't complain to the companies, they are just a dime in a dozen. Regulation, laws are what need to be changed.

Also, when a company does it it is bad, but when a person finds a loophole that disadvantages a company they are praised as geniuses! :S
http://www.snopes.com/business/deals/pudding.asp
Companies just do it on a bigger scale....the scale shouldn;t matter in moral matters.

[Laize]

As per typical, when it's actually big things negatively affecting everyone the bought out mainstream media rarely dares to poke it with even a long pole. Lets white-wash shit up false scandals and concencrating on really damaging issues, such as whom some representative sent dick pictures!

http://www.businessinsider.com/goldm...um-scam-2013-7

According to Kocieniewski, a Goldman Sachs-owned company has been involved in an elaborate plan to move around aluminum in a way that has inflated market prices. The report states that every time an American consumer buys a product containing aluminum, they pay a price that has been affected by this maneuver. Sources told The New York Times that in total the plan has cost American consumers more than $5 billion over the last three years,

Kocieniewski's investigation centers on Metro International Trade Services, an aluminum storage company that Goldman Sachs bought three years ago. According to the Times, since Goldman bought the company the average wait time at the storage facility has gone up more than 20-fold. As the wait times are longer, the companies' revenues for storing the aluminium are higher. This cost is reflected in the market price of aluminum.

Aluminum storage facilities are not allowed to mindlessly sit on aluminum — industry standards require them to move 3,000 tons of the metal every day. However, according to the Times, Metro International gets around this law by moving the metal between its own warehouses every day. One analyst estimated that around 90% of the metal moved each day went to another Goldman-owned warehouse.

The body that governs the industry has shown little interest in reforming the practice, Kocieniewski writes. This may be because the body — the London Metals Exchange — collects 1% of the rent from aluminum storage facilities. Limiting the amount of rent received would cost it millions.

This all makes for a somewhat absurd working environment. Workers told the Times that they'd routinely see the same drivers making three or four round trips a day. Some warehouses reportedly sat empty 12 or more hours a day, the Times reports, despite the huge backlog.

If the practice is as the Times describes it, it is very hard to see what value is given to society by the activity. A loose coalition of companies that use aluminium — including Boeing and Coca-Cola — have begun to put pressure on Goldman. However, the issue may go beyond aluminum — JP Morgan, Blackrock and Goldman have all been given approval by the SEC to buy a large amount of copper available on the market and stockpile it, Kocieniewski reports.

I'd like to know just how the hell he knows it's Goldman acting alone. You know... given that the COMEX has never revealed anything about their clients and proprietary trades aren't disclosed in annual filings.

[Wilian]

No one is saying Goldman Sach is actually working alone on all these. If you read the bit about future plans regarding copper, it names many more high end corporations:

However, the issue may go beyond aluminum — JP Morgan, Blackrock and Goldman have all been given approval by the SEC to buy a large amount of copper available on the market and stockpile it, Kocieniewski reports.

The biggest thing is though probably what they do with oil. Stocking it up is increasing the price by roughly 10 dollars, for nothing but witholding raw oil from market.

[Laize]

No one is saying Goldman Sach is actually working alone on all these. If you read the bit about future plans regarding copper, it names many more high end corporations:

I think you're a bit out of your element.

It took almost 20 years for any conclusive proof to arise that JPM had a colossal short silver position.... and that evidence came from them saying something like "Yes, we have a sizable short silver position, but it's a hedge rather than anything meaningful."

It also wasn't very hard to find an NYT article on the metal in question. According to the NYT, Goldman isn't hoarding aluminum. They're storing it for other institutions.

The price increases aren't a result of an aluminum hoard as much as they're a result of Goldman being a really shitty warehouse operator that managed to increase the time it took to get the metal from one warehouse to a customer from 6 weeks to 16 months.

[Sky High]

unsurprised, Banks get away with financing terrorists and drug cartels in this day and age. as the saying goes; give man a gun he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

[Laize]

unsurprised, Banks get away with financing terrorists and drug cartels in this day and age. as the saying goes; give man a gun he can rob a bank, give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

Really? Money laundering again? Come on... there are actual reasons to hate banks. They never laundered money (At least not Bank of America, the only American bank I recall being implicated). Their lackadaisical safeguards against laundering, however, allowed it to occur.

[Wells]

Really? Money laundering again? Come on... there are actual reasons to hate banks. They never laundered money (At least not Bank of America, the only American bank I recall being implicated). Their lackadaisical safeguards against laundering, however, allowed it to occur.

HSBC pretty clearly engaged in it.

[Sky High]

Really? Money laundering again? Come on... there are actual reasons to hate banks. They never laundered money (At least not Bank of America, the only American bank I recall being implicated). Their lackadaisical safeguards against laundering, however, allowed it to occur.

I can hate the banks for whatever god damn reason I want. and yes, HSBC did it, and I don't restrict my ire to American banks only, buddy boy. and I guess that is cause to I don't know....evaluate these so called safe guards?