Jim's words are not too extreme for most folks I know!
Market manipulation is a
buzz phrase nowadays and the morality behind it is disturbing enough
for Jim Sinclair to wax incandescent against it and a financial system
which he sees as ‘organised crime'.
Posted: Friday , 20 Jul 2012
LONDON -
 | |
| James Sinclair |
Now maybe Sinclair's rhetoric is somewhat OTT, but it is a demonstration of the kind of feeling which is beginning to build against some of the world's financial elite whose primary purpose seems to be just to make unbelievable sums of money for their companies and themselves out of thin air and at the expense of the man in the street. They do this purely by playing (and increasingly manipulating) markets for their own benefits rather than earning a living in the productive and creative sectors in which the huge majority of people are involved. The whole morality of the investment banking system and other financial institutions, among others, is being called into question.
No-one should quibble about the industrialist who makes his millions by building up a mega company providing this is done ethically and without adversely exploiting the workforce to do so, but one who commands salaries and bonuses of millions of dollars a year purely by moving money around - often employing dubious, if not downright illegal, methods of creating these profits through manipulation of markets - is operating on, or rather beyond, the fringes of morality. If anything is likely to cause the next global populist political revolution it has to be the understanding that a significant sector of the community is cheating its way to untold riches, seemingly in many cases with government connivance.
Governments prefer to maintain the status quo and won't rock the financial boat that feeds them.
Commenting on our article on manipulation and intervention yesterday (It's a fine line between gold manipulation and intervention) GATA Secretary and Treasurer Chris Powell noted: "First, market manipulation by private entities is, in most modern economies, against the law, like anti-trust law, though the law may not be much enforced anymore as the West sinks haplessly into corruption and demoralization. Second, market manipulation by governments is at least morally wrong if it is undertaken in secret to deceive market participants, and in some circumstances freedom-of-information law may be brought to bear against it"..
GATA, of course, has been a long term critic and whistle blower on what it sees as manipulation, and/or state and central bank interventions, in the gold market - but recent revelations like the LIBOR scandal has brought illegal manipulation across the whole financial system to the media forefront with more and more commentators writing about it, while politicians of all hues express their indignation!
Coming back to almost Victorian rhetoric, an obviously angry Sinclair notes: "The ends do not justify the means in the investment world even though it is the mantra of the devils that hide as financial and corporate personalities. Unless our markets are cleaned up of criminals there can be no sustained economic recovery. As long as the uptick rule is not enforced the Western world economic system is in the control of demons."
Now maybe that is perhaps a little extreme, but the principle expressed of the ends not justifying the means - seemingly driven by the pure greed involved in many financial and banking bonus systems and remunerations - has to be a severe flaw in the way much of the financial community, and seemingly supportive government, appears to operate.
Source: Jim Sinclair`s call to arms against the organised criminals who manipulate global markets - POLITICAL ECONOMY - Mineweb.com Mineweb
