Trader tells BBC Economic collapse is a certainty, Goldman rules the world

[Hero in a half shell]

A trader called Alessio Rastani was interviewed on the BBC and basically said the Euro economy is absolutely screwed:
So yeah. What do you think about this whole economic situation. Are you worried?
Is it to late for the Euro, should we wall off Greece?
How the blazes did this happen anyway?
And is there anyone here with stocks and shares, or using hedgefunds and all that malarky?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I'm so glad the UK dodged a bulltet with this one.

A single currency only works if there's a single government.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...not sure I agree. I'm not an economist by any meaning of the word, but it seems to me that fear of a market collapse is one of the things that's likely to cause one. If everyone collectively does stick their heads in the sand and pretend things will get better, it actually might.

Of course, individual nations/companies will start panicing and start ripping their bits of of the structure for fear it'll collapse due to everyone ripping their bits out of it.

 

[Irridium]

All you got to do is just borrow from China.

Works for us!

OR, or... just keep increasing your debt all the way to infinity, and then turn it on its side. Then it's just "8". Which, hell, I could pay off.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

He is and sounds like a complete arsehole who only cares about himself but he is probably right that a lot of stuff will collapse but that really depends on how money is spent but at this point there will probably be another dip though.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I hate that man. Profiting from other people's misfortune, only caring about making money of...anything. That's why so many people are in the shitter right now.

But he's right. Governments don't rule the world. Money does. And the ones who are in control of that money have all the power they need.

One thing I don't get though; why would people want to invest in the dollar instead of the euro? Now, the euro ain't doing well, but it ain't like the American economy is woopydoo either.

 

[Slackboy2007]

Hmmm...not sure I agree. I'm not an economist by any meaning of the word, but it seems to me that fear of a market collapse is one of the things that's likely to cause one. If everyone collectively does stick their heads in the sand and pretend things will get better, it actually might.

I don't suppose there's any chance that there are some smart economist people reading this thread who can actually give advice on this kind of thing (and aren't themselves evil, capitalist liars)?

I'm worried about the comment that savings will disappear - I don't own any property and just have savings - so should I buy some gold, a house, something else, or just do nothing like the poster above says?

Have to say that I'm not the type to worry easily, but I am very concerned that I need to do something to minimise my own risk, but not something that could actually cause the very thing that I'm scared about to happen.

Also, is there any chance that social websites could help with these kinds of decisions - as in can we all get together on facebook to work out a strategy, or is that just going to make matters worse?

I like the idea that doing nothing is the best strategy, but I'm just not convinced right now that it's true. It also doesn't help that I've been reading some Marx recently. To give the guy credit, he did kinda see this stuff coming years ago (although, if you wait long enough, every prediction ends up coming true).

 

[Michael Hirst]

I hate that man. Profiting from other people's misfortune, only caring about making money of...anything. That's why so many people are in the shitter right now.

But he's right. Governments don't rule the world. Money does. And the ones who are in control of that money have all the power they need.

One thing I don't get though; why would people want to invest in the dollar instead of the euro? Now, the euro ain't doing well, but it ain't like the American economy is woopydoo either.

Yet everyone tells you that other systems don't work and capitalism does. I hate this guy as well but he's pretty much right, the way things are now leads to bankers and investors being the most powerful men in the world.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Yet everyone tells you that other systems don't work and capitalism does. I hate this guy as well but he's pretty much right, the way things are now leads to bankers and investors being the most powerful men in the world.

Because there's something way more fundamentally wrong with the way we're living than the economic system we employ:

We live in way too large groups.

It's simple as that. Humans just aren't made to live in tribes that contain millions of individuals. That's why executives who sit in their ivory towers put making huge profits above human lives. They're just completely disconnected from all those people. Hell, even that trader in that video is clearly 'guilty' of it; he dreams of another recession so he can make more money, a recession that dumps hundreds of thousands of people into a world of hurt. And he barely seems to think about it, because he can't.

So as long as that isn't going to change, which is either until most of humanity dies off or until we evolve as a species, no economic system is going to work.

 

[darkonnis]

I wrote a big long post on this but decided it would probably be wasted.
The euro was the stupidest idea ever. It was never going to work because of this exact reason. Letting countries which either haven't got the growth, or already suffer from inflation and have weak currency join the euro was also a dumb idea.
Unfortunately, we will all pay the price for this as germany is pretty much the largest power house as far as the euro economy is concerned and the UK, though it doesnt use the euro is tied to the euro through all its trade agreements. Basically meaning we cant let the euro fail, which in turn means that greece cannot be allowed to fail.

@Cowabunga:
You would invest in the dollar because when the euro goes to shit, which it will, the dollar will probably stay the same or get better, so instead of getting say 1.5 dollars to the euro you'd get say as example 1:1. so effectively you are multiplying your money by 1.5 Soon the global currency will shift from dollars, to Yuan, that when itll get interesting.

 

[Souplex]

When everything collapses, New York will do fine, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[emeraldrafael]

he's actually pretty close to right. the one thing I've always told people about the Euro is that is not a single country currecny, but a single continent currency. if you look at individual currencies and economies, Europe is in no better place (possibly even worse) then the US and the world.

walling off greece wont help. Greece is a stepping stone. Germany isnt in a good position after they decided to blast greece, Spain is falling to shit, and we've already seen that Britain had to merge (Some) of their military with France (which in and of itself is hilarious).

Eh, I know its not the best place to get it your news, but Colbert said it <url=http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/397646/september-21-2011/solutions-to-america-s-financial-worries---world-war-iii>well

EDIT:

as to the guy speaking, i dont begrudge him. Hes thinking like a true capitalist. The capitalist system isnt meant to be fair. its the economic version of nature's survival of the fittest. The strong survive, the weak are weeded/bought out, and everyone has equal chance to make it big or fail disasterously. its the the one that works in application, while others work in theory.

 

[darkonnis]

@ravenshrike
Which is why i said it'll get interesting. Being honest, i dont imagine they'll try too hard to unpeg themselves as they've bought alot of the US debt. More likely one of the larger trading institutions will initate the change by doing a large contract in yuan instead of dollars (by that i mean attaching market rates to the currency).

 

[Jowe]

You know what we need?
an alien invasion
http://youtu.be/E1Fzzs7oVaA

 

[FoAmY99]

as to the guy speaking, i dont begrudge him. Hes thinking like a true capitalist. The capitalist system isnt meant to be fair. its the economic version of nature's survival of the fittest. The strong survive, the weak are weeded/bought out, and everyone has equal chance to make it big or fail disasterously. its the the one that works in application, while others work in theory.

Exactly. The other systems would work in the perfect society. We are not a perfect people so therefore any society we create will not be perfect. Capitalism allows Mr. Nobody the chance to make it big, but he had better beware because you can fail and fail hard. Some like to stereotype young liberals who demand heavy regulation of the marketplace and rally against big mean corporations that they only buy Apple products. Well those young liberals helped a company that could be a poster child for capitalism gone right by buying their products. Apple was nearly dead in the 90s. Microsoft's products were simply better. Then Apple brought back Steve Jobs in the early 2000's and his ideas helped Apple create better products than Microsoft (can't believe i just said that) and now Apple is considered one of the best companies in the world. The guys at Apple used the concepts of capitalism to skyrocket their business into history. So those young liberals need to realize that by buying Apple products they are helping the big corporations they think are so evil and greedy.

Don't get me wrong, plenty of them are. You want to keep guys like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase from ruling the world? Don't help them out when times get bad. Make them realize that from now on, your are solely at the mercy of your own decisions. Tell them, if you fuck up, and put your business on the brink of collapse, Uncle Sam isn't riding in on a white horse to save you. I believe once they get that, they will always think a lot harder before making very risky decisions.

 

[Slackboy2007]

It might be worth mentioning that the guy in the video isn't a proper stock market trader (as in he doesn't work in one of the big banks) - he's a hobbyist who gets paid more for talking about trading than actually doing it.

Still think he's right though...

Edit: No I don't. The guy's an idiot, and gets pwned by a real expert on this BBC World Service audio podcast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7M8wNr7k6Q&feature=related

That'll teach me to think about world economics on an empty stomach.