7/07/2012

Selling snake oil ok?




The world’s financial system is in a mess in many ways. Primarily the root of the problem is that it is run, operated, managed and regulated by crooks and robbers in designer suits and Ivy League degrees. The tragic result of this combination is best seen in the 1990s world financial crisis originating from Wall Street and London. The world’s financial system was taken down to its knees and the govts were helpless as the organisations were too big to fail and the people managing and regulating them were too prominent and important to be put behind bars. Only one or two were made the scapegoats of the whole fiasco.

The whole mess was revived without a button missing after govts poured in billions and trillions to avoid the failure of the financial system and the big financial organisations. Practically every crook is still in his job with every regulator as their accomplice smiling, and all laughing to the banks again.

There are three levels of financial crimes in the whole picture. At the lowest level are the snake oil sellers and the snake oils they are peddling. Many regulators took the cursory approach of going after these small guys, the snake oil sellers, as they are the most vulnerable, without the financial muscles and connections to protect them. And they can be easily shoved and pushed into the drains. And regulators are seen to be zealously doing something, chasing the snake oil sellers, putting all the blames on them. They are the problem, helpless punks and easy meat to bully and to be taken to task for the smallest indiscretion. It is so convenient.

The next level, more difficult to touch or untouchables in their own ways, are the top management authorising selling the snake oils. They are too high up there, with halos over their heads, presumed to be, in the Sinkie parlance, immortals and infallible human beans. They will not err and will not be accomplices to the low down crimes of the snake oil peddlers. How could they be blamed for their indiscretion and bad practices? Just keep clear of them or they will counter sue if prosecuted.

At this same level, other than allowing the juniors to peddle snake oil, they may even indulged in deceit and trickery like the Barclay case. And when caught with their pants down, no worry, they just walked away from the jobs and expected to be paid a ransom for doing so. That is how corrupt and disgusting the financial industry has become. Criminals or abetting crimes would not be prosecuted but handsomely rewarded. Only the snake oil peddlers under their charge are at fault and will be charged.

At the next higher level will be the casino operators. When normal health supplements are not bringing in the loot, anything else goes. Snake oils or poisons will be okay as long as the revenue is good and business is seen to be thriving and flourishing. Just don’t call them snake oils or poisons. Give them some sophisticated jargons that no one will understand. What if the casino operators are engaged in facilitating institutions to push snake oils and poisons into the system at the detriment of the consumers? Would there be anyone to regulate them, to check on the snake oils and poisons in sugar coated forms?

Or would everyone act dumb, pretending that snake oils and poisons are health food and supplements, or simply look the other way? And there are plenty of works that can be done and to look good chasing the snake oil peddlers who are so helpless and waiting to be put behind bars? In short, who is there to check and regulate the regulators?

16 comments:

  1. Well, this is the great mystery of our time.

    Why did the population, or the 99%, allow the greedy vampire squid bankers to collude with their elected governments to screw the future of every country by doubling down on worthless debt? And make no mistake, they are all royally screwed except, maybe, Germany who can sell enough BMWs and Mercs to the SAF to get by. And Switzerland who can bank the sales proceeds.

    It is the ultimate expression of the power of lies, spun by the prostituted media on behalf of the rich and infamous. The big lie as introduced by Joseph Goebbels for Hitler, who, by the way, believed that the reason Germany lost WW1 was that German propaganda was inferior to Allied bullshit, and wanted to fix that.

    The big lie being that if banks were allowed to fail, they would pull down the whole economy with them.

    Simply not true. The only people who would, deservedly, go down are the blood sucking parasites who get paid more than SG ministers for doing socially useless pushing of papers and electrons. Real banking, taking surplus savings and lending them out to productive enterprises, can easily be walled off from the other toxic crap if the people would force the regulators to behave in the interests of the people and not the worse-than-useless bankers.

    However, since the steeple have the wool firmly pulled over their eyes the situation is gonna have to get a lot whose before the sad realisation dawns on the majority that they have to take matters into their own hands to demand and create change. Until then, more of the same awaits.

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  2. The roots of the problem are:

    1. Fiat (paper) money

    2. FRB (Fractional Reserve Banking)

    These 2 aspects encourage "bad behaviour". And if you are a crook, you can have your christmas everyday. There is no end to the scams and rorts you can invent, because there is no "objective anchor" to the price/ value of money, and you can create large amounts of credit which you can then use as "money".

    Yet, still, life goes on. For how long? Nobody knows.

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  3. They are so blind to their crimes. The Brompton bike is a glaring example.

    Selling derivatives as betting slips for high net worth investors is another. These betting slips are no difference from the football betting slips. And they refused to regulate them under the gambling acts.

    You think they really know what they are doing? They can even distinguish poison and snake oil from genuine stocks and shares.

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  4. As a chap working in the finance industry,I totally agree with your perspectives,but you apparently ignore the regulators who are complicit in money laundering.While they are shafting the throats of the snake oil peddlers with seminars on anti money laundering laws and activities giving the false impression of a clean industry,they remain silent and condone such inflow of dirty money from corrupt politician,dictator,public officials and businessmen
    Into local banks too big to fail.

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  5. Read the last sentence. It is also implicit in the whole article.

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  6. Can't blame the regulators. They only see the good stuff. Everything is fine. Caveat emptor. When the dam burst, not their problem as long as they collect their millions.

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  7. Selling snake oil?

    1."We the citizens of Singapore ..."
    2."Inclusive growth"
    3.GST helps the poor
    4.Millionaires are capable of representing the people of Singapore in Parliament
    5.Singaporeans own their HDB flat

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  8. That's why me says enjoy your life, forget about conservation, go green, stop eating shark fin and what not.

    There is no need to wait for the World to come to a natural end. The human species will destroy and be destroyed all by themselves long before the end of other species and beings.

    Not even gods can save the human species.

    Darling

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  9. Still drinking their KoolAid

    Saycheese

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  10. I do agree with our Darling Patriot.

    The human species is far too arrogant. As a species, it has been around probably about 200,000 years which is getting quite "long" for a mammalian primate species, with ancient neurological structures based on emotion and fear as evolutionary "triggers", totally unsuited for modern life where dangerous substances and weapons are too easily attained.

    Frontal cortex (rational thought, executive functions) -- to small. Adrenal glands (aggression) -- too big. Limbic brain (animalistic survival) -- too active. Amygdala (emotion, fear) -- too sensitive.

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  11. Everything is designed to fail including every part of our body. Everything will return to dust.

    This applies to all the humanly designed economic, financial, social, political or whatever system, even ecological system.

    So funny and so strange, so brilliant.

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  12. Redbean is speaking the eternal truth and the only truth.

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  13. JP Morgan finally admitted that their fund managers were betting in derivatives and announced that the loss by the investment banker could balloon to US$6 or 7 billion.

    This is as good as calling a spade a spade, when snakes oils were once peddled as sophisticated products but in reality were betting slips. They were using their clients' money to bet big timne, and lost big time.

    ReplyDelete
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