5/06/2010

Two little traders caught

They got this guy Jerome Kerviel for chalking up a loss of $8.9 billion while trading for Societe Generale, and a Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs for concocting ‘Frankenstein products’ that led to the 2008 financial meltdown. Both were traders in their early thirties. And for all the things that they had done, the huge sum of money involved and the papers that were pushed around for approvals, no one seems to be responsible or know anything about their wrongdoings except themselves. This gives the impression that the two must be running the two banks independently, just like Nick Leeson, without supervision, without reporting to anyone, and answering to no one. And there are no internal audit and control systems to check their actions. And for what he had done, Jerome said he was treated like a hooker, being praised daily for the earnings he made that were good. And it could be pretty quite the same in the case of Fabrice, the darling or Fabulous Fab of Goldman Sachs. Jerome has written a book about the ‘big bank orgy’ that he witnessed as a young trader. And the rest of their superiors, the administrators and regulators are all so innocent. This is what Jerome got to say, ‘I am struck by the fact that nothing has been done during the past two years of the financial crisis so that the causes of the crisis are addressed and a situation like mine does not happen again.’ Was there a crisis? Uh no. Anything happened? Uh no. The financial system is kicking again, and the banks are making big bucks too. So what’s wrong? The financial system is fine, just fine. Time to loot again.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

See; one can knowingly commits crime, write a book about it and earn big bucks. Then talks big and jeers at their former employer and superiors.

What a lawless era!

And useless governors and judiciary!

patriot

Wally Buffet said...

Hehe,

Be aware that there are still lots of little traders like Geronimo Jerome and Fat Fab in the casinos they used to call banks around the world. All of them are just having a damn good time and last I heard they are planning to have a club organized with Lick Nelson as the chairman. It's a very very exclusive club. You must have either brought down a bank, a country or at the very least caused a financial meltdown before you are eligible to join.

To echo my good friend Patriot, a doomed world run by financial scoundrels and impotent governments. A nuclear war will wipe us out? Nah, the crooks in the top five financial centres of the world will do the trick with more finesse!

Anonymous said...

Wally;

now it is proven that the cowboy culture in the US of A has never evolved or changed for the better. Who is faster at the draw and who has higher calibre guns still calls the shots.

There seem to be lots of professional law makers, experts, legal practitioners and yet the Land is as wild as ever, more wild than the natural jungle. Their judiciary staff either sleep and collect pays or are paid to sleep at works. Not unlike in tyrant ruled countries where the judiciary are cowed into impotency.

patriot

Anonymous said...

Wally;

now it is proven that the cowboy culture in the US of A has never evolved or changed for the better. Who is faster at the draw and who has higher calibre guns still calls the shots.

There seem to be lots of professional law makers, experts, legal practitioners and yet the Land is as wild as ever, more wild than the natural jungle. Their judiciary staff either sleep and collect pays or are paid to sleep at works. Not unlike in tyrant ruled countries where the judiciary are cowed into impotency.

patriot

Anonymous said...

Should who slept in their jobs be given any bonuses? Should people who created problems and insist that there is no problem be given bonuses?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Yeah, yeah yeah so a couple of market mavericks were caught doing nauthy things. So what?

Capitalism is a game played with specific rules -- like the respect for property and contract, but there is no way to prevent everybody from breaking the rules and getting away with the goodies... at least for awhile.

So what if a couple got caught. They have bad luck or just plain stupid.

Consider this: what about the guys and gals who are out there running amuck... and FREE?

Spectacular!

Anonymous said...

When will the bloody cure cometh?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

As long as those responsible are not caught, more will happen. The real culprits are their bosses and their accomplices in the administration, the regulators and govt.