January 24, 2008

Here's the 30 year old trader who gave Bailout Ben Bernanke the excuse to cut 3/4 point this week

Bernanke has egg on his face today, as the real story on this week's worldwide stock market turmoil that had Bernanke panicking was one dude doing some trades in a back room.

If it wasn't so strange, it wouldn't be true. So this guy, unbeknownst to Societe Generale, his employer, made £60 billion in bets on the Footsie and other indexes out there. Then this weekend he was found out, and the bank quickly sold off his positions, causing the markets to tank.

And like the planes hitting the towers gave Cheney what he needed, this charade was the perfect excuse for Bank Bailout Ben to hop into action, dropping rates a historical 3/4 point in an emergency cut.

Whoopsie! Now that the truth is out, will Banker's Best Buddy Bailout Bernanke and the Fed do the right thing next week and raise rates 3/4 point?

Don't count on it. Like the bogus employment number a few months ago (that later was reversed) that had Ben and the inkjets cutting their first 1/2 point, they're looking for any excuse to cut rates to 0% so they can bail out their banker buddies.

And that's the way it is.

Rogue trader loses £3.7 BILLION - and 'causes global market crash'

A rogue trader gambled up to £60 billion in the world's biggest banking fraud disaster.

The dealer, named in reports as trader Jerome Kerviel, lost an astonishing £3.6 billion for French bank Société Générale and is today being blamed for this week's global stock market crisis.

They came to light on Saturday after Kerviel, named by the Financial Times and believed to be a junior trader in his 30s who worked in Paris earning less than £75,000, had covered them up for months.

He had been taking enormous bets with the bank's money on the indices that measure movements in European stock markets — such as the FTSE 100. After grilling him for six hours the bank's bosses decided it had to cancel the bets immediately when the markets opened on Monday. Some senior City figures said the "positions" were so huge that dumping them on one day could have been enough to trigger Monday's stock market meltdown, the worst since 9/11.

69 comments:

blogger said...

http://tinyurl.com/3889qt

and the speculation starts:

TRIGGER FOR RATE MOVE?

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut its discount rate, or the rate at which it lends directly to banks, in August, soon after BNP Paribas, another French bank, spooked investors worldwide by freezing 1.6 billion euros worth of funds due to problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector.

Traders speculated that this time round, the travails at SocGen had played a similar catalytic role in the Fed's move.

Said a credit trader in Germany: "It kind of begs the question now, did the Fed cut rates courtesy of a rogue trader at SocGen having to close out a massive position and sending the stock market into turmoil?"

Anonymous said...

hey look marg..its osama......

the french can't find him either.......

damn...

well honey, did he do any investments in subprime cdo's?

hmmm.......

and so now the bank blames one trader for what they did themselves and

now they can't find this man..

how convenient....

Anonymous said...

How can one junior trader have access to $60B for trades without triggering some kind of flag? Did he steal accounts and passwords from others? Why wasn't he arrested after the grilling? This sounds as suspicious as the "computer glitch" that caused the 500pt drop back in March 2007.

Anonymous said...

After reading this story ( I agree with Keith, that this might be the real story behind the money pump operation ) I have to ask...Just what the F@@K are banks doing!!!?
I mean they have lost their real purpose and they've become gambling casino's that destroy entire national economies.

Regulate these ass holes and fast. They wont have to worry about rogue traders.

Anonymous said...

Yippe!

I feel stimulated with my new roll of 300 wipes.

Anonymous said...

Let em fail

All of em

Anonymous said...

Looks like they finally found their scapegoat. Now we can squarely put all the blame for the credit crises, market crash, and tanking U.S dollar on Jerome.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

have to ask...Just what the F@@K are banks doing!!!?
I mean they have lost their real purpose and they've become gambling casino's that destroy entire national economies.

Regulate these ass holes and fast. They wont have to worry about rogue traders.

Who do you think would be a person to regulate them? Can you think of any person in the world to regulate this out of control madness?

We wait, we duck and cover, and eventually the world will slowly begin to understand the immoral pigpen that we are all wallowing in.

Anonymous said...

Can't find the guy my ass...
This guy is only the Fall guy for a big smoke screen. Thanks Keith ..for making the real truth known..It is very amazing to me that this guy would do this without any monetary gain for himself..

the entire thing makes me sick...

Anonymous said...

You gotta give the guy credit for having just absolute balls of steel.

To you conspiracy nuts out there...get a grip. Not EVERYTHING is a conspiracy people.

Anonymous said...

Why do they say Société Générale is the "victim" in this case. As far as I know, they said the guy didn't benefit from the fraud. So this is no fraud, this is bad investment. Since the bank is responsible for all of its employees, it's responsible of this investment. Verdict: SocGen is "Culprit" for these losses. Today, they announced €7 Billions in losses, and that's all you've got to know.
As a side note, I can't believe a single trader, less than 10 years in the company, would handle such a large portfolio as to lose that much moneyz. If what they say is true they're incompetents, else they're liars. And we all know bankers tend to be liars, especially nowadays. Since no French bank wants to say they're exposed to crappy american debts/CDOs/you name it, expect moar unbelievable fraud in 2008(i.e Lies).

Anonymous said...

It kinda smells like bullshit. I worked at a bank and i find it hard that someone could access so much cash undetected. This kind of job is hard to pull if not impossible even if you know security procedures by heart.
But then again, i dont have enough info on the matter, so ill wait to see.

The again, this could just be a scapegoat to boost confidence in the market, blaming it for last week crash and hoping tho scuker investors in again...

PJ

Anonymous said...

come jan/09 the govt will stimulate spending by regulating the destruction uf all the televisions working capabilities....better save your tax rebate

Anonymous said...

How convenient that they can all point the finger at one insignificant and powerless person? They will crucify this individual to divert attention from the real cause of the downward pressure on the markets.

I won't go so far as to suggest that they conspired to fabricate the entire story. I just think they see an opportunity to blame anyone other than themselves.

We all know who deserves to be called out as the criminals that they are - Lareah, Yun, Greenspan, Bernake, Mozilo, etc. etc. etc.

Anonymous said...

This just kills me. These banks and hedges funds are just gambling. This is no different than two 8-year olds betting a dime on whose rolly-polely bug will cross the crack in the sidewalk first.

This is just absurd. Greed, greed, greed at our expense.

Anonymous said...

When's that die off supposed to start?

Anonymous said...

Societe Generale, France's No. 2 bank, announced $10 billion in losses today, blaming the bulk of it on one "rogue trader" -- a story which not even the press corps buys.

This morning, the bank's top leadership had to respond to nearly two hours of aggressive questioning from some 100 journalists who attended a press conference called to explain their claim that a lone trader managed to cause the bank to lose 4.9 billion euros ($7.2 bn). Additionally, the bank reported another $3 billion in losses from subprime mortgages and from the U.S. bond insurer Ambac Financial, which had insured all the toxic CDOs held by the bank.

The assembled press were especially eager to hear all about the lone (assassin) trader theory which the bank is pushing. With a straight face, bank officials tried to explain that, on Friday evening, Jan. 18, they had discovered that a small trader had fraudulently taken very high futures trading positions. One of the journalists of a leading economic daily noted that "They take us for real idiots!" It was announced later that prosecutors in Paris had opened an investigation of the trader, identified as Jerome Kerviel.

On Monday, the Societe spokesman said, the bank began to unwind the lone-trader's positions -- which is not only supposed to explain Societe Generale's losses, but also the worldwide stock market collapse at the beginning of this week!

For many months, it was widely rumored that, among French banks, Société Général was probably the worst off. So nobody believes the fairy tale of the loan trader.

Anonymous said...

How convenient that they can all point the finger at one insignificant and powerless person? They will crucify this individual to divert attention from the real cause of the downward pressure on the markets.

This rogue trader might even commit suicide...ya know what I mean?

brokersleaveyoubroke said...

So, some junior trader in the back room of a bank that most people never heard of is playing games with 40 billion of other peoples money and he causes 7 billion to evaporate. Meanwhile, in the front room they have security cameras, armed guards and bullet proof teller windows to prevent someone from stealing the few thousand dollars of loose cash in the teller drawers. Seems like they might take a look at back room security.

Anonymous said...

Who do you think would be a person to regulate them? Can you think of any person in the world to regulate this out of control madness?

We wait, we duck and cover, and eventually the world will slowly begin to understand the immoral pigpen that we are all wallowing in.

January 24, 2008 9:21 PM

99%of what these bankers and financial sharks are doing would have been "illegal" just a few short years ago. Why do you think they've overturned all the FDR banking regulations? If we still had the FDR regulations then the bankers couldnt get away with this.

Enron was created "after" the deregulated the nations energy grids. Dont you remember all those populist Californian's screaming for de regulation back in 1997? I sure as hell remember those fools.

Who will regulate the banks and markets? How was it regulated (when it was regulated) before. It isnt a matter of opinion, you do not allow bankers to "eat people". Start with that rule and the rest will work itself out.

Anonymous said...

Why does this whole thing make me think of Barings Bank? That Leeson guy did something sort of similar, didn't he? I forget.

Any chance SG is going to go down?

Anonymous said...

Why do they say Société Générale is the "victim" in this case. As far as I know, they said the guy didn't benefit from the fraud. So this is no fraud, this is bad investment. Since the bank is responsible for all of its employees, it's responsible of this investment. Verdict: SocGen is "Culprit" for these losses.

Agree 1000% with that statement.

What's with all this "playing the victim" nonsense that permeates our society? I got lung cancer from smoking 6 packs a day? Blame the tobacco companies. I weight 600 lbs from eating junk food all my life? Blame McDonalds. I over-extended myself on my McMansion? Blame the evil Predatory Lenders.

My bank has no oversight and one of the douchebags we hired fucked up royally? Well, hey, I am the "victim".

Anonymous said...

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BETTER COVER YOUR SHORTS QUICK TOMORROW!
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HAS ABSOLUETLY NOTHING TO DO WITH FED CUTS AND STIMULI, BUT A FUNDAMENTALLY STRONG ECONOMY.
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FLASH: TINFOIL GOES THROUGH THE ROOF!
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DOPES!!!

Anonymous said...

"This rogue trader might even commit suicide...ya know what I mean?"

"and so now the bank blames one trader for what they did themselves and how convenient...."

"Looks like they finally found their scapegoat"

"How convenient that they can all point the finger at one insignificant and powerless person? "

I also heard that a black helicopter landed at socgen and area 51 aliens jumped out and Elvis was there hanging out with Bush and Cheney and Richard Nixon (you don't really believe Nixon died did you sheeple?) and the whole operation was run by Haliburton and financed with secret Ameros in order to destroy the middle class and bring about a new world order run by Jews, Masons and Mormons.

Yeah, yeah, that's the truth man, I read it on the interweb and someone said something about it on talk radio so like you know dude, it must be real.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure it was only one bad apple and everything is just FINE now.

Anonymous said...

Just about every bank made massively bad bets... why is this guy getting singled out? Every bank should name the individuals that made the bad bets.

Anonymous said...

There is no way you make this shit up if you were hitting some heavy acid. News flash: Teenager hacks into global banking system wipes out a gazillion gillion dollers. How a big valley girl WHATEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Anonymous said...

Why does this whole thing make me think of Barings Bank? That Leeson guy did something sort of similar, didn't he? I forget.

Any chance SG is going to go down?

January 24, 2008 10:33 PM

Ironically Nick Leeson was asked by media to comment on this case. What he said (paraphrase) was "The financial system is as fragile today as it was in my time".

Doesnt sound like Nick believes in the "loan assassin" theory.

Anonymous said...

LMAO!

Rouge trader, if you believe that.....then.....why not this?

"I've got a great borrower with a 400 FICO who needs 125%LTV."

Anonymous said...

I also heard that a black helicopter landed at socgen and area 51 aliens jumped out and Elvis was there hanging out with Bush and Cheney and Richard Nixon (you don't really believe Nixon died did you sheeple?) and the whole operation was run by Haliburton and financed with secret Ameros in order to destroy the middle class and bring about a new world order run by Jews, Masons and Mormons.

Youre "aces", there is no fooling you. There is simply no such thing as conspiracy. The entire universe is just a collection of random objects living and non living just bouncing off one another.

I've never seen confirmation or proof that human beings get together and make plans to achieve their desired goals, have you?

That shiat is for "conspiracy kooks" not smart guys like you and me.

Loved the black helicopter and Elvis reference. I have never read such an original reply before.

Like I wrote earlier, there is no fooling you.

Anonymous said...

remember in the movie ghost how the person who was in charge of a multimillion dollar account was to type in a certain account number and the money was to mysteriously go into another account and pat swayze got clipped because he found out. it is possible to do bad things but there also others who also do cross and checks. I don't believe this story I don't think this guy was able to sit in a back room with a massive account and trade all over and no red flags were raised somewhere. If this is the case then we are doomed because there are employees all over the place making bets with bank money and no one knows, because there is nothing new under the sun. Or maybe there are and that is why banks are posting huge losses. I say when younger people started bumping older people out of jobs because they didn't take chances and did things the old way and hated being around old people(for them 45 is old)looked at them with distain, tried to beat them out of their jobs, have no respect for them and their knowledge, roll their eyes when an elderly coworker(50) tried to explain something. This was a bad problem in the 90's no one wanted to hire older workers, hence age discrimination. Forget life experience in the job market only young, new, fresh ideas. Forget tried and true, loyal and devotion. (how dogs are) Now the job a requirement is to make sure you razzle and dazzle the hiring person, razzle and dazzle the supervisor and then razzle and dazzle the boss. Old people complain to much, too petty, loosing that spark. Well all that razzle dazzle has gotten alot of these companies in bankruptcy and litigation, massive money hemmorage, and looking stupid. Age has it's place, I don't hear anyone ever complaining about Warren Buffet's age. He has lined himself up to do the clean up and rake in a few billion while he is at it, no razzle dazzle involved.

Anonymous said...

It was just one rogue trader--but he was leading 19 guys with box cutters

Unknown said...

The demand for commercial credit has collapsed which gave the FED the room to cut. Yes they want to cut to bailout their buddies, but you have to understand that the tail is wagging the dog here. The FED is powerless to "Set" rates, then can only fine tune them and if the demand was there they would have had to inject more then 100 billion into the market to defend that rate. They only had to add 10b.

The FED will cut to near zero because the demand for credit will collapse that far. This is not a liquidity issue, it's a solvency issue and it doesn't matter where the FED sets the rates, it's not going to fix it until you get trust back into the system.

We are in a deflationary environment where money is going to money heaven. The banks are hording money because they will be able to buy assets for pennies on the dollar when this is all through. As long as they can stop people from revolting they will let the monetary base deflate as far as it can.

The problem is that if you are up to debt to your eyeballs with no savings you are going to get crushed. All the homeowners that levered up to keep pace with the Jones are going to be devastated.

Ben doesn't want to fix this. If he did he would enforce the banking regulations and I'm sure they would seize a couple banks. All hell would break loose for a little, but in the end the problem will be fixed. Nope, he and the pigmen of wall street keep leading the sheep to slaughter...

Anonymous said...

NEW PBS SHOW GUESTS EXPLAIN TO AMERICANS HOW TO COPE WITH FINANIAL CRISIS:

The new mid winter PBS lineup includes an New Show (taped from lock-up at Federal Prison)called the "Mozilo Group" Starring Angi Orange Mozilo (the one in the striped jumpsuit)

It features a seance format. The first guests will be Jack-the-Ripper, followed by Adolph Hitler and the renowned Dr. Josef Mengele discussion various topics of financial interest. If time remains, a guest interview with vacationing Osama Bin Laden Live from a compound in Kennebunkport, ME.

Angie will give his viewers personal hygiene tips on how to look orange and deal with the heartbreak of psoraisis and sleep while standing with his back facing the wall after the boys-in-the-yard have their way with him.

Closing each show will be a segment with dead Ken Lay, taped from the crypt explaining the fine points of American business.

Tune in. It should be almost as entertaining as watching the Fix put in place in the US stock markets.

Next Week, Benedict Arnold and Dick Cheney in a panel discussion about high crimes, misdemeanors and treason against their countries, board game style.

AND Don't Forget to vote in the HP worst President ever poll. So Far, George W. Bush has taken a commanding, some say insurmountble lead in the 'louse-of-history' category for killing the America in only 8 short years! Heck of a Job, George!


America is DOOMED

Anonymous said...

It's always some buck private that gets blamed when the battle is lost.

Anonymous said...

.


This country was Blessed by God!

Now we worship the almighty falling dollar!

Greed, fraud, life based on striving for riches, Gold, hedonism, covetousness...!

What do you expect when you worship one god over another?

You can't serve two different gods!

We have turned our backs on the one true God

So don't be surprised when he turns His back on you (us)!

Not to mention Worship of Britney, Paris, Lindsey, Al gore, Hollywood and it's ilk, global warming, porn....all put before you to take your eye off the Truth and the Son of God!



REPENT

.

Anonymous said...

Do they expect us to believe this?

Anonymous said...

this is too funny! the story has to be "made up!" it's almost like how the US government claimed to know who the 9/11 hijackers were!

the french president is ready to end "the happy life" as the french know it! the party over there is over! and they'll blaim it on this kid!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

You gotta give the guy credit for having just absolute balls of steel.

To you conspiracy nuts out there...get a grip. Not EVERYTHING is a conspiracy people.

January 24, 2008 9:30 PM<<<

come on man, this guy has patsy written all over him.....give me a break. balls of steel. hardly. he just did what he was told and probably got set up for it. but don't worry. same thing with that guy that did that number on the bank of england and the lords of london , for soros that time several years ago...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It was just one rogue trader--but he was leading 19 guys with box cutters

January 24, 2008 11:41 PM<<

yeh he probably had a box cutter in his desk. so based upon that information alone, i would think this guy was pegged to be one of the bad guys from the start. but you never know though. he is not wearing a turbin and is not carrying a brand new never fired ak47 around either....oh well, we shall just have to guess won't we..? but who knows, maybe he is hiding in some cave somewhere making electronic trades via his Iphone. he caused the whole banking industry of the ecb to go bankrupt and now he can't be found. maybe the french should send out the french army to look for him and of course they will never find him. he is the osama of derivatives.

Anonymous said...

Blogger cobra2411 said...

The demand for commercial credit has collapsed which gave the FED the room to cut. Yes they want to cut to bailout their buddies, but you have to understand that the tail is wagging the dog here. The FED is powerless to "Set" rates, then can only fine tune them and if the demand was there they would have had to inject more then 100 billion into the market to defend that rate. They only had to add 10b.

The FED will cut to near zero because the demand for credit will collapse that far. This is not a liquidity issue, it's a solvency issue and it doesn't matter where the FED sets the rates, it's not going to fix it until you get trust back into the system.

We are in a deflationary environment where money is going to money heaven. The banks are hording money because they will be able to buy assets for pennies on the dollar when this is all through. As long as they can stop people from revolting they will let the monetary base deflate as far as it can.

The problem is that if you are up to debt to your eyeballs with no savings you are going to get crushed. All the homeowners that levered up to keep pace with the Jones are going to be devastated.

Ben doesn't want to fix this. If he did he would enforce the banking regulations and I'm sure they would seize a couple banks. All hell would break loose for a little, but in the end the problem will be fixed. Nope, he and the pigmen of wall street keep leading the sheep to slaughter...

January 24, 2008 11:44 PM<<


if we didn't have a fed and the irs, we would never have crashes and bubbles. growth would be slow but money would be worth something. when i was a kid , you could get a coke for a nickle and a gallon of gas for 17cents and hamburger for 25 cents and at my first job i made $1.25 a hour.

Anonymous said...

"This rogue trader might even commit suicide...ya know what I mean?"

"and so now the bank blames one trader for what they did themselves and how convenient...."

"Looks like they finally found their scapegoat"

"How convenient that they can all point the finger at one insignificant and powerless person? "

I also heard that a black helicopter landed at socgen and area 51 aliens jumped out and Elvis was there hanging out with Bush and Cheney and Richard Nixon (you don't really believe Nixon died did you sheeple?) and the whole operation was run by Haliburton and financed with secret Ameros in order to destroy the middle class and bring about a new world order run by Jews, Masons and Mormons.

Yeah, yeah, that's the truth man, I read it on the interweb and someone said something about it on talk radio so like you know dude, it must be real.

January 24, 2008 10:54 PM<<

oh go listen to rush or sean and hit the bricks buddy. get off the stage. you are worse than kramer.

Anonymous said...

This rogue trader might even commit suicide...ya know what I mean?

What are you implying here? That this Jerome fellow and Molzilo are going to start up a hedge fund in the Cayman islands together???

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever read the book "Liar's Poker?". If you haven't, it's one of the best books I've ever read--I highly recommend it. It gives you real insight into what is going on in the trading rooms of these firms.

This isn't the first time something like this (the SocGen story) has happened. There is a story in the book about how a company blamed a multi-billion dollar loss on one of its traders, saying that it didn't realize what he was doing. That guy was fired, and then immediately re-hired by a competing firm. Obviously they didn't buy the story.

I doubt that SocGen was totally oblivious to what this guy was doing.

Anonymous said...

That is without a doubt the most desperate excuse yet.That dude probably doesn't exist.Oh ok ,i believe some dude in a back room traded 7 billion of the banks money,and they never knew.Lalalalallalallalallalallallallalalalalallalaaaa

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You gotta give the guy credit for having just absolute balls of steel.

To you conspiracy nuts out there...get a grip. Not EVERYTHING is a conspiracy people
---------------------------------------------------------
Ok ,I gotta grip now,and you do the same.Not everything Your Government says is true,well pretty much nothing your government says is true.Sorry,TinHat?

Anonymous said...

Look you idiots, this is what 7 years of deregulation and cronyism yields. Anyone who can't see the forest for the Big-Business trees deserves to be stripped of all they hold dear. WAKE UP silly ones! Keith. how long can you tap dance your little heart around the warped policies of Neocons. Call a spade a spade and party dysfunction a party dysfunction. You name Bush and Cheney (finally), but it took forever. When are you going to admit to sucky policies because of flawed policies implemented by a dysfunctional group within the party that has failed us completely and totally, leaving us all screwed. Fess up. I crave honesty in commentary, Thanks for getting us 3/4 of the way there at least.

Anonymous said...

That is my brother.The worthless pos cost me 50k tuesday.My dad has been wondering where the loser ended up.This guy is a briliant computer genius.He has a bad gambleing problem and the bank is lucky they only lost 7 billion.He thinks he a trader but hasn't made a dime daytrading.he lost his ass bigtime in 2000.I'm going to beat the shit out of him when I find him.

Anonymous said...

brokersleaveyoubroke said...

So, some junior trader in the back room of a bank that most people never heard of is playing games

Some people like to flaunt their ignorance. Société Générale is a major international bank I guess it might not be a prominent as the Wyoming Teachers Credit Union but most of us have heard of it.

Anonymous said...

And here I was thinking Lee Majors was the "Fall Guy"...What a relief

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Too obvious.

Meet the Lee Harvey Oswald of the Jan 2008 crash.

(This has been your daily conspiracy theory)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous January 24, 2008 11:02 PM said...
"I'm sure it was only one bad apple and everything is just FINE now."

Now thats funny!

Anonymous said...

Pete Najarian said there is no way this guy did this on his own, that he used to be a trader and was watched like a hawk. Sounds like he is being used as a scapegoat to take blame off the banking system so the ugliness of what they have been doing can be kept hidden.

Anonymous said...

What's exciting is that one single man...a young man at that...can bring down the entire global financial system.

Ha, ha!

Amazing! Simply, we're in such deep sh*t and there's so much finagling going on, that the market will never sort itself out.

It's like pumping someone full of different kinds of drugs, constantly: uppers, then downers, then anti-depressants, then quaaluds.

We are so Fu**ed I can't believe it!

Anonymous said...

If you see this story become a regular talking point on CNBS(CNBC), then you know it's just more bait to sucker the little guy into buying, while their buddies are unloading.

Anonymous said...

Just another version of "Hey, look out for the falling piano!" trick while they lift your wallet.

Anyone who was pushing crap NINJA Opt-ARM paper into the markets can be lumped into the same "rogue trader" bin as that poor froggy schlub that's getting the heat.

Anonymous said...

Funny how everytime the market crashes, it's a computer glitch or rogue trader. When the market goes up, it's because of the goldilocks economy.

Anonymous said...

I also heard that there was a conspiracy to round up and kill Jews during WWII. I heard that there was a conspiracy among Islamic radicals to subjugate or destroy the West. Those silly conspiracy kooks.

Anonymous said...

Lets all get this straight guys.

THIS DUDE DID NOT CAUSE THE MARKET CRASH, AND NO WAY HE LOST $7.8 BILLION ON HIS OWN. SOC GEN IS HIDING SOMETHING HERE.

Anonymous said...

OH!!! It's not derivatives, subprime, housing, or a dollar that's devalued 99% since 1913. It was a ROGUE TRADER!

I feel ok now. Thanks for looking out for me dad. Here's more money to help you find the bad guys for me.

Anonymous said...

fucking french sell-monkeys!

us muricans buy only Freedom Mortgages!

It's Fannie and Freddie, not Francois and Felicite!

Debt is patriotic!

Buying is American as the Superbowl!

selling is what pessimistic liberals and smelly french people do.

Anonymous said...

C'est vrai.

C'est la faute de Jerome. Seulement Jerome.

Never mind that Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Mumbai started selling before the day opened in Paris.

You see, there was a disturbance in the Force.

They knew Jerome was gonna sell.

Anonymous said...

Dont you remember all those populist Californian's screaming for de regulation back in 1997? I sure as hell remember those fools.

I was in California. Those people were known as "Republicans".

Ordinary people didn't want it at all. They knew what it was like with cable TV.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever read the book "Liar's Poker?". If you haven't, it's one of the best books I've ever read--I highly recommend it. It gives you real insight into what is going on in the trading rooms of these firms.

This isn't the first time something like this (the SocGen story) has happened. There is a story in the book about how a company blamed a multi-billion dollar loss on one of its traders, saying that it didn't realize what he was doing. That guy was fired, and then immediately re-hired by a competing firm. Obviously they didn't buy the story.

I doubt that SocGen was totally oblivious to what this guy was doing.

January 25, 2008 1:36 AM<<

they put young people in positions like this because they have never known defeat, they have never seen recession and they have never seen the markets in a downward spiral. they love risk and when things are going good for them, things are ok. but when things go bad, they do not have the ability to respond quickly enough to this new information because they have been programmed to go forward, to throw money after money thinking all along that things will turn around and that everything will be alright in the end. this is one of those times when they gambled and lost. so now the bread that was cast upon the waters comes back....youth has its place in this world, but so does experience and wisdom and caution.......so now perhaps they will ask the french people to bail out this firm for this insanity...

Anonymous said...

I stepped in a puddle this morning.

It was a conspiracy. You see Bush and Cheney wanted me to ruin my shoes. Then I would guy buy new shoes. And guess who owns the shoe company? A Republican who is pals with Cheney. And guess what else? He is pals with Bush's 3rd cousin's sister in law? And this is the really freaky part. The sister in law's daughter once dated a guy named George who was from Texas.

Coincidence...I think not. It's all part of the same new world order being created. Wake up people.

So look out everyone, every time you see a puddle on the street, don't be fooled. It's not rain that causes puddles. No way man. It's Bush/Cheney.

Anonymous said...

Sure, I believe that SocGen "didn't know" that one of his traders was gambling with the "irrelevant sum" of $60 billion.

Nice scapegoat, frenchies.

Anonymous said...

What's with all this "playing the victim" nonsense that permeates our society? I got lung cancer from smoking 6 packs a day? Blame the tobacco companies. I weight 600 lbs from eating junk food all my life? Blame McDonalds. I over-extended myself on my McMansion? Blame the evil Predatory Lenders.

On that note, Ford and Firestone made crappy products to save a buck, blame deaths on drivers; Republican senator Larry Craig was being a gay pervert in a public bathroom, blame the "devil made me do it".

Anonymous said...

So look out everyone, every time you see a puddle on the street, don't be fooled. It's not rain that causes puddles. No way man. It's Bush/Cheney.

How's that parasite Republican job doing for you? You have no credibility here, parasite of honest taxpayers. You're nothing but a Karl Rove's bootlicker vomiting from your taxpayer desk and computer in Washington. I do know that you're in Washington. Be very afraid.

Anonymous said...

Always a reason to be attached to a market move.

The market moves, and the reason is thought up on the spot by 'analists'. Boy, were they glad this 'lone trader' popped up.

It's always a 'lone trader', as well as only 'lone gunmen' shoot down politicians.