On Camera, Iranian trader to BBC: "Euro Crash is coming, regardless of what governments do"

Pahlevoon Nayeb

National Team Player
Oct 17, 2002
4,138
0
Poshteh Kooh
#1
Sorry, But This Trader's Banking Confession Was No Prank

Published on Thursday, September 29, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

The Yes Men have been blamed for Alessio Rastani's comments on the financial crisis. But sometimes truth outdoes satire

by The Yes Men


This week, an insignificant market trader and self-proclaimed financial self-help guru, Alessio Rastani, rocketed to stardom after speaking frankly on the BBC about the collapsing market and his plans to make money from it. We Yes Men heard about it right away, because soon after the broadcast, people started emailing from all over the world to congratulate us on another prank well done. They couldn't imagine that a real trader could possibly speak so candidly about the market, so they assumed Rastani was one of our posturings.Trader Alessio Rastani shocked BBC viewers when said he ‘dreams of another recession'.

He wasn't. Rastani is small potatoes, but he's a real trader. And he said nothing that would suggest otherwise; he simply described what he does, more honestly than a true insider would, but quite accurately. "Every night I dream of another recession," Rastani said, and explained that it's possible to make huge money from a big crisis even when millions of others lose their life savings, and worse.

Well, duh. Don't we all know that Goldman Sachs bet against the same housing market they were such a big player in, and made $1bn in profit when the sub-prime crisis rendered millions of Americans homeless? John Paulson, the manager whose hedge fund was betting for Goldman, could have honestly said exactly what Rastani said, but of course he knew better – possibly because unlike Rastani, Paulson's firm had a major, immediate and provable impact, and there's no telling how his millions of victims might have reacted. Unlike Rastani, true industry insiders like Paulson, Geithner et al remain silent about the way their system works, couching it all in technical jargon and full-on deceit. They've been doing it for decades, and, since Ronald Reagan's day, with increasing consistency.

Lately, it hasn't been working so well. Something has been speaking in very plain language to millions of people. The crowds amassing in cities from New York to Athens to Paris are just the tip of the iceberg, just the most visible of all those who have long known, viscerally, that Rastani's point of view is actually mainstream. Those people also know that, armed with truth and awareness, anything is possible.

As Michael Moore pointed out to those occupying Liberty Plaza near Wall Street, in America it's just 400 people who own as much as most of the rest of us put together. And when the rest of us decide we really want to change the rules of the game, and take back this country for all the people, those 400 won't be able to do anything about it.

[video=youtube_share;aC19fEqR5bA]http://youtu.be/aC19fEqR5bA[/video]
 
Oct 16, 2002
39,533
1,513
DarvAze DoolAb
www.iransportspress.com
#2
It turns out he was pretty much a hoax :)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...tani-Im-an-attention-seeker-not-a-trader.html


By Jonathan Russell

11:50PM BST 27 Sep 2011
Comments


The soundbites won Mr Rastani instant fame. He became a viral hit and was trending on Twitter. BBC business editor Robert Peston was among the fans. "A must watch if you want to understand the euro crisis and how markets work," he told his army of 82,000 followers on Twitter on Tuesday.

The interview contained such gems as "Governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world [and] Goldman Sachs does not care about the rescue package."

But on Tuesday night the BBC was left facing questions about just how qualified Mr Rastani is to speak about the markets.

In the interview Mr Rastani described himself as an independent trader. Elsewhere he claims he's an "investment speaker". Instead of operating from a plush office in Canary Wharf Mr Rastani works and lives with his partner Anita Eader in a £200,000 semi in Bexleyheath, south London. The house, complete with a mortgage from Royal Bank of Scotland, belongs to her not him.


[SUP]The £200,000 semi in Bexleyheath, south London (far left), where Alessio Rastani lives.
[/SUP]
He is a business owner, a 99pc shareholder in public speaking venture Santoro Projects. Its most recent accounts show cash in the bank of £985. After four years trading net assets are £10,048 - in the red.

How a man who has never been authorised by the Financial Services Authority and has no discernible history working for a City institution ended up being interviewed by the BBC remains a mystery.














[SUP]Stock trader Alessio Rastani: "I'm an attention seeker".[/SUP]

The incongruity led to some commentators speculating Mr Rastani was a professional hoaxer. The BBC denied the allegation: "We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax."

However, the BBC declined to comment on what checks, if any, it had done prior to the interview.

Mr Rastani was a little more forthcoming.

"They approached me," he told The Telegraph. "I'm an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking."

So he's more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn't own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.

"I agreed to go on because I'm attention seeker," he said on Tuesday. "But I meant every word I said."
 

feyenoord

Bench Warmer
Aug 23, 2005
1,706
0
#3
Alessio Rastani You Tube phenomenon
September 29th, 2011
Author: Richard Henley Davis
Translation

Write for The Economic Voice-Click HERE
Alessio Rastani has risen to fame after his appearance on the BBC where he said Goldman Sachs rules the world and the Euro will collapse.



The trouble is no one is now taking him as seriously as they did on the first viewing because Alessio Rastani is not, it has transpired, FSA regulated and he is ‘just’ a small time trader.
But he is still an independent trader who said in public what most traders in the employment of large financial institutions would not dare say for fear of losing their jobs.

I speak to economists and traders every day and to be quite honest they are saying the same thing as Alessio said but in confidence for fear of losing credibility with their employers and clients, which could have a negative outcome on their very own financial position.

Lets take a look at what Alessio said and if it tallies up with the sentiment of other traders.

Well just look at the results of a poll ran by Bloomberg released today. Apparently 30% of traders and questioned said they think there will be a global financial meltdown in the next 12 months as opposed to just 18% back in May.

43% of traders and investors believed that there would be a recession in the next year whilst 70% said a recession would hit in the next 5 years.

So the difference between the remarks of Alessio Rastani and the traders polled by Bloomberg seem to be quite comfortable bed fellows.

Every trader and economist I have spoken to all say the same thing (without exception), Europe is toast and the big money is not interested in any long investment position in the Eurozone.

And yes there are traders who are very much looking forward to a recession because that simply means betting against the growth by investing in those sectors which do very well during a recession.

These new sectors (which I would love to mention….and will soon) will be where the money will flood to once the Eurozone collapses but it might be a bit difficult if you don’t have the funds available upfront…..don’t forget liquidity is running on empty.

As for the Goldman Sachs ruling the world…..I think he should have mentioned a few other banks (that shall not be named) first, after all it is not just Goldman Sachs who has benefited from the recapitalisation, it is just about every bank across the planet that has in effect been bailed out be it directly or indirectly.

But back to plot, here are some of the reasons that most traders and economists don’t see the Euro surviving another 12 months:

1. The 2 trillion Euros proposed for a future bailout might meet with stiff opposition from Germany…that might be one vote Merkel won’t be able to force through.

2. The aforementioned bailout fund of 2 Trillion Euros won’t be enough cover Greece running into trouble, let alone Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

3. Greece can’t pay back it’s current debt and the Greek people have no desire to pay it back.

4. The level of exposure to Greek debt is not truly known and mediocre stress tests are not sufficient in establishing whether or not a bank can survive a Greek default let alone a pan-European default.


What is surprising and might come as a bit of a shock is the level of worry expressed by the traders and economists over the democratic rail-roading in order for politicians to attain funds from the taxpayer to keep the political project that is the EU and Eurozone afloat.
This is not as unexpected as one might think though because the UK as a financial hub is now under threat from the EU with the latest transaction tax proposal.

The fact is we all lose under European rule….



Read more: http://www.economicvoice.com/alessio-rastani-you-tube-phenomenon/50024186#ixzz1ZO5YcBr5
 

feyenoord

Bench Warmer
Aug 23, 2005
1,706
0
#4
His CNN interview

[video=youtube;7c6d_1QUfC4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c6d_1QUfC4&feature=watch_response[/video]
 

Niloufar

Football Legend
Oct 19, 2002
29,626
23
#5
wow very interesting..he may be a short-term trader, but he is saying what some accomplished Economists have said in the past few weeks..he just says it in a more blunt way.
love his recommendations: Protect ur assets, and take advantage of this opportunity. (something a lot of financial advisers never recommend to their clients).
 
Feb 22, 2005
6,884
9
#6
What I would add is Goldman Sachs through running the financial part of the US government, uses the US government for their own profits.

While the country suffers, Goldman Sachs was one of the creator of the problem, as they shortened and made tons of money and sank their competition Lehman brother and others, and continue to give heavy bonuses to themselves, 15 Billion dollars in 2010.

Unfortunately, Tea party ignorants were created to be used by the wealthy and corporations to take focus and attention away from going after these SOB and it has been working.