A week or so ago, I quoted Prof. Angelo Codevilla’s view that America is now an oligarchy. That’s become even clearer in the current imbroglio over short-selling of Gamestop shares.
The hedge funds that usually make fortunes at this game were caught off-guard by “ordinary folks” like you and I, who organized on Reddit and began their own short-selling campaign to force the hedge funds into closing out their short positions at far higher costs. The result was that Robinhood, a popular trading app, restricted trading in Gamestop yesterday, and some of its members even had their purchases reversed without permission or authorization – all so that the hedge funds and other financial oligarchs could close out their short positions at lower cost.
That’s flagrantly illegal, of course – but the financial “powers that be” don’t care about that. They don’t even care that it was so visible that it can’t be hidden or denied. They reckon they’re above the law.
Tucker Carlson covered the situation in depth in his program last night. It’s a vitally important issue, far more so than just about the stock market, because it shows the same pattern of disregard for the law and the will of the people that we saw in November’s elections. Basically, the oligarchs said, “The people can’t be trusted to vote in the politicians we want, so we’re going to sabotage and manipulate the elections to get the results we want.” Now they’ve done exactly the same thing to the stock market, shutting out ordinary people in order to get the result – and the profit – that they want.
If you prefer to read rather than listen, you’ll find a transcript of most of Tucker’s discussion here. However, I do strongly urge that you either listen and watch, or read, or even both, because this is vitally important.
EDITED ON 01/30/2021 TO ADD: Well, well, well. Guess what? YouTube has taken down, or made private (and hence not embeddable) every video of Tucker Carlson’s broadcast about the Gamestop affair. Big Tech is (yet again) censoring news it doesn’t want us to hear. Fortunately, you can still see the video (or most of it) at the Fox News link in the preceding paragraph. I highly recommend that you click over there and watch it for yourself, or read the transcript.
As one poster on Gab summed it up:
They killed Epstein and told us it was suicide and every normal person knew it was bull**** and it didn’t matter, and then they blatantly rigged the election, and then blatantly rigged the stock market. They don’t care anymore.
I couldn’t have put it better myself. They don’t care anymore that we see their manipulation in action. They think they can do as they please and get away with it. After all, they stole an election, didn’t they? What’s a little stock market shenanigans compared to that? They think we’ll forget about it soon enough, and things will return to normal – that is, their normal. We’ll still be screwed.
This is why I said it was so important to oppose the electoral fraud that was so obviously in play last November. Those behind it successfully manipulated the courts into refusing to actually examine the evidence of fraud, and allow the purported results to stand. As a result, we now have an illegitimate Administration in Washington. As the Gamestop imbroglio illustrates, we also have an illegitimate financial system, rigged in favor of the oligarchs who control it – and now that the Trump administration is gone, Washington D.C. encourages and tolerates that.
What those oligarchs appear to have forgotten is that all their machinations are only going to work as long as most people don’t get fed up enough to take action. The Redditors who’ve just watched themselves blocked – and in some cases impoverished – by the financial powers that be, are not going to go away. They’re going to be angry as ****, and rightly so. If they, and others like them, decide to burn down the entire financial system by causing so many disruptions that it can’t operate normally, there isn’t much the oligarchs can do to stop them, except stop all public trading and perform their machinations “out of sight and (they hope) out of mind”. That won’t work – not in today’s integrated, automated, online world, where every secret is one leak away from being exposed.
The veil is being torn away. Everybody can now see for themselves that “the Emperor has no clothes” – and instead of “going with the flow” and pretending that he does, they’re mocking and pointing fingers.
Our society is becoming dangerously destabilized, and those at the top are responsible, because they’ve become so larcenous that their greed – for money, for power, for control – is unbalancing everything. From the politicians who enter office as ordinary middle-class Americans and leave it as multi-millionaires, to the financiers who pay themselves six- and seven-figure bonuses every year for fleecing ordinary investors in the markets; they’re all in bed with each other, and all determined to make out like gangsters. They’ve lost all discretion. They want it their way, and they’re determined to get it by hook or by crook; but in doing so, they’ve exposed themselves, and that makes them vulnerable.
They may think they can use the courts, and the law, and the trappings of officialdom, to protect their ill-gotten gains. However, that won’t stop angry Americans from finding out who’s behind this (who’s benefited from it, who’s made money, who’s shafted everyone else), and going after them personally, as individuals. I won’t be surprised to see some of those behind this fiasco suffering very direct consequences from it – and I won’t shed a single tear for them if they do. It’ll be no more than they deserve.
Peter
EDITED TO ADD: Brian Niemeier has similar thoughts, even more cogently expressed, and forecasts more fiscal (and other) mayhem to come. Go read. He also traces the trail right back to the White House. This could be catastrophic for the Biden administration.
We live in an oligarchy, under a one-party system nationally.
There is an illusion of two party rule but that's all that it is. Oligarchs control the futures of Republican politicians in the same way that they control democrats.
The recent Wall Street flap will be covered up as the narrative is changed to RACISM or some other, "look, a squirrel!" event. If they get enough pressure, there will be a war of some sort.
If the oligarchs start a war, should the US military go, or will they end up like Russians in World War 1 – just turning around and going home? The promised purges by SECDEF could make that a reality.
I don't know that halting the ability to bid $200 – $300- $400 or more per share for a company that analysts figure might be worth UP TO $16 a share… is impoverishing anyone. Flip side of the coin, the people that are suing to be allowed to gamble their moneys will be suing later on in reaction to losing their money. Caveat Emptor.
Thanks for the Brian Niemeier link. It explained why the panic, I did not know banks were also on the hook.
I watched the Tucker clip last night, it was spot on.
Oligarchs are defunding the GOP, which actually helps gop voters.
It’s a good message that bed bath and beyond stick is down 30% after banning my pillow products.
Interesting….. When I click the link to read the transcript I get an “Access Denied”. Wonder why…..
Time to buy stocks in rope manufactures. We're going to need a lot of it.
Refresh it to get rid of the access denied.
I see this issue with Fox links all the time.
The headline suggest they have a best.
I think the headline should simply suggest they are getting more bold.
The head of the FBI decided hitlery committed no crime…she had no intent to commit crime…he reached this decision before he reviewed the evidence.
In response to HouseFitter:
If they're buying on margin then yes because the broker has 90% of the liability they can say no, we won't do that trade because we do not believe the collateral (the stock in question) has the value to back the loan. If they're buying in cash let them do it. Perhaps ask them to officially confirm the trade and note that the broker feels this is a bad trade and let them go. It's their money. Heck people spend thousands of dollars on little pieces of cardboard with pictures of long dead baseball players (or mythical monsters) and to me that seems equally s, but hey its their choice.
It is rather amusing to see the Wall Street gurus hoist by their own petard. Here's hoping the current administration is in the blast effect.
They didn't "start a short-selling campaign of their own", they started an *anti* short campaign by deliberately buying stocks that other people were short-selling, and not selling them. It's called a short-squeeze.
In other words, big firms were shorting GameStop stock, and these folks spiked the value of the stock, so suddenly the stock was worth a hell of a lot more than it was when the big firms shorted it. That makes the short-seller responsible for the difference in cost, if I understand correctly, which is insanely expensive. The short-sellers have lost billions, per industry publications.
It's beautiful.
People don't seem to be aware but the stock/commodity markets ARE fixed.
Just look at the price of silver over the last 5 years. It hovered between $18 and $15 / OZ no matter what happened in the financial markets.
Stock prices are heavily influenced by government interference such as the Big Bank Bailout under Bush, 2007, QE 1,2,3,4 under Obama, Economic Stimulus packages, Infrastructure Rebuilding plans (Obama's shovel ready projects).
Stocks go up and down depending on what the Fed is doing. Large conglomerates and Hedge Funds manipulate the stock market at will.
If the government decided to nationalize a section of the economy, their historic intrusion, which has been totally accepted, will simply rule the day. "Hey, we need your energy stocks, you'll be reimbursed in retirement credits".
In the case of GameStop, the big three hedge funds were obviously in a conspiracy to drive down the prices of certain tech stocks. One of the hedge funds lost so badly, the other two had to bail them out.
Of course they don't care. They're even beyond not caring – they're doing everything right in the open just to rub it in. And why not? It's not like anyone is lining up to stop any of it.
@ Ray: "It’s a good message that bed bath and beyond stick is down 30% after banning my pillow products."
Short term loss only, unfortunately – they can weather it just fine. Target and Dick's took similar hits, and now Target is making record profits.
Our society is becoming dangerously destabilized, and those at the top are responsible, because they've become so larcenous that their greed – for money, for power, for control – is unbalancing everything.
“The cause of all these evils was the desire for power, which greed and ambition inspire.” — Thucydides (in translation), 400 BC.
Flip side of the coin, the people that are suing to be allowed to gamble their moneys will be suing later on in reaction to losing their money.
The people who are losing money now don’t have to sue—they speed dial the regulators and legislators to cover their losses.
Thanks for the link.