<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Than you to everyone who responded...... This leaves us with fend for ourselves building resilliant communities it looks like to me.</div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span>Hat tip John Robb
</div>
<br><div><div>On Dec 14, 2011, at 2:05 AM, Denis Postle wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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<font face="Trebuchet MS">Gordon, I have had a similar reaction to
the constant references in the media to how 'the markets' ie
investors, will see actions by financial institutions and
sovereign governments.</font><br>
<br>
Here is an analogy, see if it runs: if, as I tend to assert,
capitalism is the dominant spirituality of our times, this makes the
the markets into some kind of 'heaven' inhabited by 'investment
gods' who influence everything we do but nowhere to be seen. When,
through their 'angels', eg rating agencies, the IMF etc, the gods
bring bad power weather and compound interest strikes, action has to
be taken to appease the gods, 'sacrifices' are identified and
offered. However, the power weather continues unabated.<br>
<br>
Extricating ourselves from the grip of capitalist spirituality is
likely just as difficult as it was for western religionists three
centuries ago to extricate themselves from a universal belief in a
domineering god who knew everything and was everywhere and whose
agents required sacrifices when sin was detected. <br>
<br>
Denis<br>
<br>
On 13/12/2011 21:38, Gordon Cook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:A9DC563E-4935-4835-924A-7E4A9C25AC45@cookreport.com" type="cite">Every day the mainstream press relates how
"investors": have driven up or down the price of European
sovereign debt and other bonds and commodities.
<div><br>
</div>
<div> Could it be that with the deregulation of the financial
sector we really have no idea from these bastards actually are?
certainly hedge funds are among them as quants use sophisticated
algorithms to buy and sell on the basis of formulas that very
likely few people know or even begin to understand. Marching
hand-in-hand with these investors are the Wall Street banks with
their bond trading offices. and added into the infernal brew
is high-frequency trading.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> Indeed one wonders whether the speculative financial markets
have created and unleashed a predatory monster that step by step
is bringing down the economy of the euro zone nations along with
that of the United States.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> the trading of these bonds is running effectively is an
entirely speculative operation benefiting the bond traders and
the one 10th of one percent with so much wealth that they have
nothing better to do than to bet in the casino. As of 30 or
40 years ago markets were supposed to raise capital for
productive investments in education or infrastructure. today it
would seem than bond rating is largely destructive but that it
also goes on and on without question and without anyone even
daring to raise a tax on financial transactions that might slow
down the speed of destruction. How can this be? How is it
possible for the mainstream media to talk solely of unknown
�investors�? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> does anyone really have an idea of who these investors are?
they surely are very very different from those of the 70s when
investment banks were still private partnerships and global
finance had not yet become a casino.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Are readers here aware of anyone anywhere raising these
questions<b>?</b><br>
<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div>Investors in bond markets surely include pension funds but
from what I have seen most of the pension fund managers
entrust their investment decisions to bond traders at Goldman
Sachs and the like who then take a proprietary algorithmic
approach to doing �investment� on behalf of their clients.
What is inside the algorithm other than profit for the
traders? it seems that no one knows. Is this really correct?
What am I missing? Surely I'm not the only one asking these
questions?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> It seems as though the profits are to be made by
undercutting confidence in the ponds and raising interest
rates beyond sustainable levels have been since the banks
capture the economy prevents interest rates set by central
banks and anything above essentially 0, the only place left to
gamble or �make� money is the bond market. And yet we have
this powerful high-frequency trading system running on
automated pilot being left on question to wreak its
destructive path. Because all of this is the market magic of
�investors�. How can it be that we are still allowing our
futures to be determined by this allegedly free-market of
"investors" of unknown identity.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>What am I missing?</div>
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