Yesterday’s video of my TV argument with Peter Schiff triggered a huge and mixed response from many of you. Thank you for all your feedback.
However, I thought I should let you know about a very angry letter I received from one of our subscribers. Here’s what she said:
“Alessio. I respect your honesty and the work you do. But I can’t believe you actually said in that interview we should have rescued the banks instead of letting them fail and collapse like Iceland. You clearly support the greedy and criminal banks!”.
I understand that not everyone agrees with me on this, but allow me to explain my point.
In the weeks after September 2011 when my “famous” BBC video went viral on the internet, I received literally hundreds of emails every single day from ordinary people all over the world.
I have lost count of how many there were, but believe it or not I read every single email.
And I want you to know something.
Some of the letters I received shocked me and made me question everything I believed in.
One letter was from Tony, a construction worker in Spain who had four children to feed. He was asking me what to do as he was so scared about losing his job and not being able to take care of his family.
Another letter was from a Celia, a 67 year old woman who told me she had lost everything in the recession except her home. She had only pennies to live on.
Or how about Samuel, a computer technician who was made unemployed after 20 years of loyal service, and now had to support a pregnant wife.
When I read these letters, it truly made me think…
There I was on TV saying how I was looking forward to making money from a recession. And yet these honest, hard working, people can barely make ends meet.
Let me get straight to the point.
It is easy to sit on a comfy armchair and say “let the banks fail” and “we were wrong to bail them out”.
But if you were to consider the consequences of such an action, there is no doubt in my mind that we would have been forced into a global depression lasting decades, worse than that of the 1930s.
OK. If you’re a billionaire like George Soros, Warren Buffett and Peter Schiff, you can survive an economic depression very well. In fact, you’ll probably make even more money in a depression.
But for the ordinary folks like the ones you and I meet every single day it would have been a far different story:
…losing their home, their job, their self-respect, forced to beg for support.
Many people who say “Iceland is the answer!” probably have not sat down for a second to read the true horror stories of the lives of many people in Iceland in 2008.
I urge you to read the first Chapter of John Lanchester’s book “Whoops!” for an example of this real life horror story.
Take the young Icelandic student who was studying at a UK University. In October 2008 she went to a bank to withdraw money to pay her University’s tuition fees. When the bank said she had no money in her account, she worried that she had run out of money. Little did she know that the entire country of Iceland had gone bankrupt!
The student was forced to quit her studies and move back to Iceland, facing a very dark and uncertain future.
How many of you reading this right now would have liked to swap places for that student? Or to find all your life savings evaporate before your eyes!
Sure, the banks who caused this crisis filled their pockets with bailout money. They got away unpunished and that is totally unjust. It makes me angry too.
But I truly believe the only way we could have averted a full blown depression was to rescue the banks and thus the savings and future of millions of hard working people.
The problem is not that we bailed the banks out. The problem is that financial institutions were allowed to become so powerful that they just became “too big to fail” (TBTF).
We still have not solved this problem of TBTF banks – and as long as bullies like Goldman Sachs run the world as they always have, we probably never will.
All the best.
Alessio
Alessio.
Don’t let others bother you. There will always be haters when you know you’re not doing anything wrong, but they probably have other objectives.
All the top investors like Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff, and so forth all say they should have left the banks to fail but that’s because they are already multi-millionaires.
I graduated in 2010. It is hard to find a job even after the bailout and I’m in Canada. And It STILL affects me. I have become a capitalist now and determine my own future. But if there wasn’t a bailout, my dad would have lost his job. With two children that can’t even find a job and have no savings, on top of that, I owed Government debt for student loans.
What does Peter Schiff or the other big investors have to say about that? Will they come to our aid? No. They will sit in their offices watching their net worth grow. Yes, I realize the economy does need a reset, but I’m glad my father didn’t get fired and I paid off my debt, made a business out of what I do and then now I’m trying to learn how to invest for the big fall.
I see most of my friends still without jobs, and this isn’t going to end well but it at least gave me time to do something about it. It’s like Cancer, you really want a non-curable cancer to kill you now or drag on for as long as you can? Most people will pick the ladder.
Don’t let them get you down! They know why they want the banks to fail! They don’t care about the average citizen, but you do and that’s what’s important. You will always have the majority of people’s support as long as you think about others, but for those that have other objectives of gaining more on super events then you should consider them as trolls……..or at least not someone you should pay much attention to.
Hey Alessio,
I always appreciate your honesty and how you call it as it is. I agree with you that the problem is that the banks were allowed to become TBTF to start with, but worse, now they are even BIGGER to fail thanks to Obama and the low lifes his administration brought over from WS. That’s the real crime. You have integrity and you know what you’re talking about. Always enjoy reading your emails.
Peter Schiff is a economist that predicted the crash before it happened even while being scorned and laughed at. He also is a patriot that spends a lot of time trying to wake up the sheeple of the U.S. to the evil of our monetary system. I don’t think Peter is a billionaire like you say Alessio. I think you are a smart man Alessio but Peter Schiff deserves more respect than you are giving him. He is not just a trader. He does a heck of a lot more than that!!
You don’t have to somewhat apologize here what your teaching is truth
May take a while for denial’s to subside for us all.
I’m a Music Producer With Over 100,000,000 albums sold
World wide and I can tell you that through you people will be
Enlighten that is why your glowing right now.
Respectfully
Steve Morales
I like ur honesty. Ur points are valid. You have the courage to come out in open and tell the truth.
Alessio
It is not an all-or-nothing scenario! It would have been perfectly possible to protect the savings of “ordinary people” while letting the scum-bag banks fail.
The government need simply have increased their financial compensaion scheme to cover retail account holders up to some notional figure (say £10 million) which would have covered all private individuals and small companies.
Then just let the banks fail and go the wall. Let the shareholders take the hit.
Ordinary folk would have been fine. They would have simply put their money, after compensation, in the new banks that would have arisen to fill the vacuum.
Easy!
Dear Alessio,
I agree that the certain banks need rescuing but what I am oppose is the bonus they received from the taxpayer money it should never been approved. The bank collapse is due to their own action by lending people money they cannot afford it. If they are entitled to the bonus they should also reimbursed the money we lost for their own action! If the banks made a mistake resulting in a large lost their pay pocket should be deducted as it is the same way they entitle for their bonuses if they made some profit.
The world needs liquidity to function. But it does not require greedy people accumulating all the wealth and the majority of other people suffering for it. How is a banker etc worth more than someone that actually fixes thing with there hands or a graduate that has a passion for a certain field and cant make ends meet. I am not imploring communism it doesn’t work, but rather a proper democracy with every bit of it Greek meaning, the actual people running things.
Economic institutions should be run by government inturn run by the people for the greater benefit of society not vise-versa. These institutions should be completely independent with no conflict of interest. Economies should be based around the peoples needs, environment etc. as a tool for the benefit of the people. But instead let’s all be greedy and generate a generation of mind less consumers that care little about politics and offer them free credit, I don’t see that ending well with 7billion people and rising.
So finance is necessary but it must be regulated, how can we let an unregulated world bank govern us?
While generally I am not in favour of regulation…..We have too much of it already. However I feel that banks have been allowed to get away with too much like HF trading….. the deep pockets that allow manipulation of the commodities market and so many other shenanigans they get up to. Who pays the rating agencies for instance ? Futures trading was never meant as a casino, it was originally introduced for farmers to hedge their produce due to weather etc. As Buffett famously said “derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction” I don’t mean ALL derivatives but when the likes of JP Morgan & HSBC can trade 100 times the amount of gold and silver that actually exist physically, surely something has to be wrong. The so-called “enquiry” that has been going on into the CFTC and their shenanigans has still not reported after over 4 years. This all makes me feel all the banks are in bed with governments because they are shit scared of the power they have and the fact that they are all relying on fiat currency which continues to be debased with bad consequence for the governments that don’t hold Gold, despite what Bernanke says, it is actually money, and has been for the last 2000 years. Ask yourself why every sovereign bank in the world is trying to accumulate gold including China the largest producer who now bans its export and continues to IMPORT……. Sorry got off the subject a bit !
Also completely agree with the persons above about letting the shareholders take the hit. In Australia the major banks CBA etc are firstly not passing off any of the reserve banks official cash rate cuts. Secondly their share price have regained and then some. Finally the banks are making record profit and bonuses (where this whole conversation started from) but at the same time cutting jobs etc. But hey let keep the share prices high so my bonus comes in this year.
Also I feel for students that cannot find work but I believe that is another matter of edu institutions creating jobs and revenue for themselves rather than basing intake on societal need.
It will come to a junction when enough is enough.
Alessio,
First I would like to say that it was cool to see both you and Peter on TV together because I have been following Peter since the recession and have two of his books, but also have very much appreciated the work you have been doing since your interview and receive your email updates and participate in some of your webinars.
Both of you I think agree on the same overall principles, but one thing about Peter is that he consistently looks at things from a very fundamental, overall macro economical way, and he preaches it all the time, everywhere he goes. I agree with you that unfortunately we needed to bail out the banks because they were TBTF, but Peter recognizes that in order to get the economy back on the right track fundamentally, they shouldn’t have been bailed out because the next time a crisis comes it will be even worse if we do not bail them out, so when will it ever happen?! There comes his his moral hazard argument. You are both right, but YOU recognize that 99% of people were not ready for the collapse at that specific time, and there probably would have been marshal law in America if we did not bail them out! I’ll tell you that I wasn’t ready, but now I am because of people like you and Peter! As far as bonuses, as long at tax payers are on the hook for a corporation, NO bonuses, but in the free market let the market dictate it.
Alessio, you are the most honest financial guru out there and I appreciate it greatly. Your willingness to teach with out charging per sentence is such a breath of fresh air and speaks to your good morals. Keep up the good work, and I’ll keep following!! Thanks, Jed
I disagreed with your opinion on bailing out the banks.The problem would just be moved down the road to become even bigger.We cannot continue living in the twilight zone.Reality must return at some point otherwise they might as well give everyone in the country a million pounds if printing money was the solution.The examples you give in regard to Iceland just don’t cut it in my opinion.Life is not fair.People are suffering all around the world.Many people have nothing to eat.Does that mean I will go without in sympathy? Of course not – if I can help it! What about the Icelanders who protected themselves through other investments like Gold and Silver? The ones who suffer are the ones who are not prepared.As Harry Schultz says ” if you want to be a patriotic citizen be a solvent one!”
To your great credit Alessio, you are helping people in a big way by educating people to take responsibility for their money.You can teach people how to fish but you cannot force them to either! To each his own.
Another point I would like to make is this.You don’t need banksters to make you a rich country.Paraguay was the richest country in South America in the 1800s and yet it had very little dealings with the outside world.Then what happened, the moneymen tried to get a foothold but were publicly shown the door and along with their British masters conspired with Brazil and Argentina in particular to create the Triple Alliance war which destroyed Paraguay and from which it has still not recovered.So I am sorry if a student has to quit their studies but that pales into insignificance on what is really at stake – a country’s sovereignty and freedom to decide its own destiny.
Iceland have been a great example on what should be done now just like Paraguay was in the past.
I agree with what Max Keiser says. Bankers should be facing a guillotine.They are just vampires and suck the life out of countries.If I ran my bank account like they do I would be in prison! Why aren’t they?
Hi Alessio,
I found your recent disagreements with Peter Schiff rather interesting and debatable. Anyway, my personal opinion is that we should totally revamp the banking system and goes back to the traditional banking system wherby the risk of lending is between the borrower and the lenders(banks). The crux of the problems is that there are too much financial derivatives in the market which is easily manipulated by the “creator” of these instruments.
Secondly, “sound money” should be introduced back into our financial system wherby all paper money printed out should be backed by physical gold.
Last but not least, the power to “print” money should be reverted back to the government of each country instead of private central bankers. Like what you said earlier, the world is run by TBTF banks and these banks are killing the smaller traditional banks and to make it worse now they have “agents” running most of the countries in the world!
As for letting the TBTF banks go bankrupt ? Yes we should BUT with condition that all the top management MUST GO TO JAIL..!
Personally, i think the world economy currently is like a final stage HUGE VOLCANO waiting to erupt. We can already see the “indicators” such as toxic gas spewing out and more frequent earthquake due to the immense pressure building up underneath. Maybe we should let the Volcano erupt…and when it blew the top .. definitely it’s gonna create shockwaves across the globe and along the way kill innocent lives along the way…but the good news is after the blast the land surrounding the lavas and ashes are FERTILE…! Perfect to start a new beginning!..
Cheers,
Robin
Alessio, l believe it would have been better to let them fail, let the governments print their own money and start again with a people’s bank, and say F___K you to the bankers and the committee of the 300 holding everyone to rand-some. Now, as for the student that had to return to Iceland, she would have gotten her money after going to the government to explain her situation, or the closest person to them like an MP.
The banks are now run mainly by women, and they made a deal whereby they said stuff the big banks and here is what we are going to do. We will make sure that you get your money but we will have to raise taxes a little to pay for it, but in future it will be the governments money, because they are honoring all payments to those that had savings, if they switch to a mainstream system. This is what l have heard from someone in Iceland.
They will recover quickly, as for the US Britain and Europe, they are doomed, and everything will be over by 2032. just ask Martin Armstrong. He’s the man.
Ang
You’re not the only one to be angry with the big banks. A few days ago, I watched a programme called Bank of Dave on Channel 4 in the UK. It was about a businessman who was so fed up with banks refusing to lend to local businesses that he created his own bank. He paid depositors 5% interest, lent to local busineses, made a profit …and gave it all to local charities! Inspired by his boldness in taking on the bullies, I also bought the book the other day. In it, Dave describes what went wrong with the banks and why he took them on – and succeeded. I haven’t finished it yet – but it’s compulsive reading! Here’s the URL of it at Amazon if you’re interested… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0753540789/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=wwwwithucouk-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0753540789&adid=06H4GWJQMCZTBF0VE7WM&
I agree with what Simon mentioned above. It should not be an all-or-nothing scenario.
What the governments should have done is
1) to spend money protecting people’s savings (from hard working people like you said), but
2) allow the banks to fail and collapse.
Yes, that means bankers and shareholders would have suffered but I believe that should be the spirit of real investment.
I really like you Alessio and I enjoy and appreciate your emails and web site. I understand what you are saying about the disastrous effects of not bailing out the banks. However, the fact that nothing has changed regarding the too big to fail banks and that there has been no meaningful financial reform, says to me that bailing them out was a mistake. Until something drastic happens, these Goliaths are going to continue raping us. The U.S. Federal Reserve is a criminal organization that is giving money to their criminal banking friends while retirees and savers suffer under artificially low interest rates and the inevitable inflation to come. Moreover, this progressively increasing debt laden system cannot sustain anyway. Eventually it is going to meet a catastrophic end and the longer we postpone it, the worse it’s going to be. This may not be nice…….but it is reality.
Hi Allesio,
Every stick has two ends. The case of wether to let banks fail or not is not easy. You’re quite right in many issues, but to let banks bankrupt is maybe the only way to end this insanity. Don’t you think that even if we don’t let banks to fail the recession is gonna be absolutely difficult for almost everyone anyway?
What you say is quite right and sensible from short term point of view. But what later on? What if TBTF problem won’t be solved? They will be trying to maintain status quo as much as possible. They will not let us change anything. The bankers’ ego and desire to have more and more is uncureable. Maybe it’s only shock that can start new – more balanced – beginning.
It was great to see you and Peter Schiff together in one show 🙂 Thank you for honest and sincere talking even if people disagree with you.
Alessio,
Many people have not come full circle yet. Yes the banks are corrupt, yes they rob us every day, yes they control and manipulate the markets, yes, yes, yes. However, they are so ingrained and the web is so entangled that were we to have let the banks fail it is just as you said or even worse. It is the sad reality and it dates back probably 1000’s of years with old money trust funds of the truly powerful. So freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. Which is what would have happened if we had let them fail. It’s a double edged sword. Even then, unless we re did our entire monetary policies it would all just start over again! Also while many were left without a chair when the music stopped in 2008, many people were lucky and happened to sell at the right time. Ordinary folks I mean. Are we to unravel their Notes as well? We can’t, it is truly to big to fail and apparently too big to jail too!
Thanks Alessio
I agree with your observations. It disturbs me enormously too. One of the reasons I have not invested in trading, as of yet. I am in the metals because I don’t see it as feeding the money machine. Though it doesn’t look too wise at the moment, I am sure it is a good long position.
Despite that, I believe that what you are doing is correct. You don’t support the party line, you educate and you share the knowledge you’ve gained. You can’t force people to learn and go against a life time of conditioning.
Hopefully a percentage of the people here will also share the benefit of their education here and soften the blow to others with their profits.
I don’t have any sympathy for communism or socialism. They suck the creativity out of industry but helping and having a social conscience is very important.
You are doing the right thing.
Well Alessio its an hard one, but i think you were both right, you and peter that is. If we let the bank fail we would go into a depression and you would be able to short the market and make the money you dream of, but a lot of people would loss everything, but i think peter was also right and i think he hit the nail on the head when he said if we dont let them fail soon the banks will just create more debt by just kicking the can down the road. The problem wont go away it will just be harder to deal with when the house of cards finally comes falling down. By the way i still respect you and all the work that your doing. Wilton
Alessio, the banks should never have been bailed out. In fact, what should have been done is the deposit accounts / mortgages of failed banks simply transferred to those that were still solvent. I was against the bailouts at the time, and the sector has been making a monkey of the very people it was supposed to be saved for ever since. Rewarding failure is always a losing game, and is akin to paying a blackmailer. I could write a book on how wrong and how badly handled 2008 and the intervening years have been handled and probably will.
Alessio, I too was shocked by your ‘famous’ comments about a recession – but only on first hearing them – on listening to them (there is a difference between listening and hearing) I understood what you were saying was from a traders perspective and therefore understood your meaning. You are the only one of the internet pundits (I hope that is not an insult!) who has actually talked about what would have happened to the ordinary people (me, my family and friends included) if the banks had failed…and you are right in my opinion. I have 8 year old twins and while I worry about the future for them, I am glad that we are not living out of a soup kitchen. Thanks and keep at it!
This is true. I agree. The problem with a financial institutions right now reveals when You anticipate what the future will bring to us. The reality is that the 90% employees of the new investment banks like Goldman Sachs, are a spoilled “golden children” selected from the most prominent families who does not give a shit to anything like a social awarness. These children are pushed to these chairs, eventhough they might be commpletely irresponsible, just to fit the expectations of their parents. Wealth of such a young family member does not justify his stupidity and irresponsibility, but in reality in the evil investment banks, it seems that it does, as these families apply their own internaly spoiled superficial measurements. So in conclusion we have a whole new generation of a young future banksters, who party on cocaine, does not give a shit about people, and have already promised job by his “uncles” bank or a fund. This is scary, as people in these institutions should HAVE BEEN PRE-SELECTED OFFICIALY, PROVIDING THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT THE COMMON SENSE OF THE WHOLE SOCIETY. And this should have been already established!!
Hi Alessio,
I think you have hit both nails on the head very well.
a) Ordinary People could not in any concience be put through this,
b) The banks are still TBTF. However there is one thing that the people of ice land wont have to face, and that
c) is the coming collapse of these banks when the delaying tactic of bails outs, cant plug the leaks in this sinking boat. Iceland has plugged those leaks.
I would like see which choice people would make if they new about “c”.
I think they would all choose a).
Looking forward to your thoughts on that.
Cheers and keep up the great work.
Andy
Yes, you are completly right.
Not to save Lehman Brothers was a big mistake with all the consequences we know now.
D.A.
Good interview, Agreed with augments from both yourself and Peter. Maybe a view in the middle of that to allow some banks to fail? But then the one(s) that fail lose their peoples money and that is not right. Banks are the backbone of any nation. Ours (England) just happens to be corrupt and withering and needs to be ripped out and re built.
Your views Allesio have always merited a lot of respect from me. You talk it straight and how it really is, even if the truth is sometimes hard to swallow.
Banks should never had paid ANY bonus of ANY kind to the bosses. How do you deserve a bonus for failing at your job! If normal people do badly at their jobs, they don’t get a bonus, they get fired!
It is this type of privilege and power that needs striping away and replacing.
Or are the big bonuses being paid for actually succeeding at something we are not seeing?
Hi Alessio,
I think you were brave when you talk on the BBC and Al Jazeera. In fact, I follow you since your famous interview. But now I don’t agree with you.
I think that THE MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT, and it has to be, for the companies AND FOR THE BANKS. So, if a bank is in bankrupt it must be closed. Most of the goverments have a protection insurance for the small customers (100.000 € in Europe and I suppose that’s the same for USA and England), so when a bank is being rescued with state money that means that we are rescuing the richest people, and I think that they have to take care of their money, just like every small business and person. If a bank is not doing its job as it should, it has to be closed, as for everyone.
Anyway, I like you to talk so clearly and I congratulate you. I’ll continue reading your emails, they are very helpful.
Thanks again
Although I don’t understand all of it I understand enough to recognise that what you say makes sense.
I admire you’re courage in speaking out. Please continue to speak the truth.
All I can say is I agree with you 100% and the people who say let the banks fail have no idea how bad things would be now if we had, this is nothing to what could have happened. I also cant believe that we are making such a fuss about Bankers Bonuses as all that will happen is that places like Hong Kong with hold out their arms to welcome the only ” Industry ” the Uk has left.
Thanks for you insight….Graham West
Alessio,
It is true that if the banks had been left to fail that we would all be in a world of pain and suffering, the problem is not banks but the people who operate them. The criminal element is rife with in the banking industries, the governments are also criminal and hide behind legislation that was implemented to protect them all from criminal prosecution. Where do we go for justice when the system is rigged from the get go. I strongly believe that this is an asset grab constructed by powerful organised criminals who want nothing more than complete control of monetary policy across the globe, problem, reaction, solution, all of which they have created and will carry out, we all need to take a reality check and understand that we are under attack by the people who pretend to want to help us. P.S, keep up the good work and don’t stop telling people who and what we are dealing with, criminal organisations.
Alessio – I think you are being too kind actually. There is this book I am reading called Cold Hard Truth written by Kevin O’Leary, a very successful Canadian entrepreneur. One either admires him or hates him and most people fall in the latter camp. But I do not think you are nearly as harsh and brutal as Kevin O’Leary. And I like what Kevin O’Leary has to say because he is telling it like it is. So if people think you are harsh then they either are naive or in denial. Keep up the great work and thanks.
Alessio,
I agree. We were in a lose-lose situation and the TBTF banks knew it. Talking about the banks these days is a very emotive subject.
I prefer to be practical and directed rather than complain or provide opinion. Could I recommend (and this is just a recommendation with no strings) that you advertise and project knowledge about the Greenback Initiative info.fmotl.com/GreenbackPound.htm) and Canada’s Public Banking Institute (publicbankinginstitute.org) or The Bank of Dave (burnleysavingsandloans.co.uk) ?
Dear Alessio,
I appreciate your honesty.We need more people like you and somebody who will actually do something about these TBTF institutions. Recession has touched all of us one way or another and we are still quite a ways from solving the problem.My heart goes out to people who suffer in this game of the Big Bullies. Lack of knowledge is a big factor in our lives too. Thanks to you we learn a lot please keep up the good work.
Thankyou,
Shaheena.
Dear Alessio,
I appreciate your honesty.We need more people like you and somebody who will actually do something about these TBTF institutions. Recession has touched all of us one way or another and we are still quite a ways from solving the problem.My heart goes out to people who suffer in this game of the Big Bullies. Lack of knowledge is a big factor in our lives too. Thanks to you we learn a lot please keep up the good work.
Thankyou
Alessio,
I agree with you 100%. But now we have to solve the TBTF problem, IF there is a solution….
Here on opinion planet, it all depends on where you are viewing from and level of concern, if any, for your fellow man. The box seats behind home plate or way up in the bleachers. We did need the time to adjust.
Those who trade hundreds of thousands or millions are not as affected as those on the other side of much less asset to liabilities arena, who were conned from a young age to save in banks, rarely trained in complicated financial instruments, CDS’s. In the zero sum game of greed, condescension, preying on the unsuspecting marks, the individual wherever they are viewing from, needed the time to figure out their own personal family survivals.
Alessio, though I am not the savvy financial market maker or HFT, and it takes more for me some times to understand these discussions, you have the wider view compassion to be concerned for those more affected by these financial onslaughts taking the bleacher people into consideration. You are a great force for the good of your fellow citizens. I get your point and appreciate your diligence. There should be more men like you pulling the curtain back on the wizards of thievery!
The loan sharks, allowed to do whatever they darn well please stepping on their neighbors, robbing them at contractual gunpoint or just plain selfishly unconcerned is not an honorable personality trait. Interest rates? for doing what? NOTHING. My ability to generate and pay for living space is how I keep a roof over my head and if not, I am out, while banksters do nothing but create the illusion of lending, shuffle papers, and ask me to sign on the dotted line for the priviledge to be robbed. The sickness is endless. There needs to be more stock market ROBIN HOODS….like you! Thank you for showing us a way through…
we should have bailed out the people in the banks and change the system into a old fashioned banking system and seperately investment firms. so the investments would have to be transferred to investment firms and the bank is there as a public unity. like in canada
Bailing the banks out at the time was a necessary evil. However, the way it was done was wrong. No accountability, no outline of a plan. We have now created an even bigger monster than before that is TBTF and therein lies the problem. How do we unwind this mess? We don’t. Its too big now and there will one day be a massive pop as the financial system must reset. We didn’t avoid anything and this time it will be much worse than before if we would have let it go in 2008. Yes it would have been tragic. I have six children and I’m here to tell you it would have been catastrophic, but now I fear even more for them. The light on the hill though is we have a little more time to prepare for it. Global money printing and debt without growth equals global collapse. There is no way around it. It always leads to one place, the final resting place of all collapses, and that is war. Nice.
I have to dissagree with you on that one Alessio.I am Greek and can tell you firsthand what austerity can do to a country.The goverment borrowed a lot of money,to save the banks from collapsing and that debt was added to the huge one we already had.In the end if you save the Banks is like rewarding failure and the bankers will keep on doing what they did because there are no consequences for them.Not to mention the fact the bailouts burden the taxpayer with enormous debt.Answer me this: “Why must i,an average law abiding citizen who was prudent enough to invest his money in Gold years ago,have my wealth almost confiscated, through increased taxation,so that incompetence can be rewarded.?” Do you know that people withdraw money from deposits to pay the absurd taxes our Goverment imposes,which leads to more borrowing for more bailouts?
well it seems the banks and the banksters are saved and that’s the end of the storry?
I think it’s just the begining.Now after saving greedy banksters the world economy will face even worst recesion.Europe is without jobs anyway.Greece,Spain 27% unemployment.I live in Britol and haven’t worked for 2 monts,coz here is no jobs.The big recesion is coming and the money to save the banksters was watsed.Politicians steal our money by inflation but it’s not goingto help.
I’m just ordinary worker not an investor but it’s how it looks for me.
Dear Alessio,
I find it amazing that you read every word of your emails. To respect that I’ll try (uncharacteristically) to be brief. I’m a retired pastor of a Protestant Christian denomination. The more I have lived with the teachings of Jesus, the more I am convinced that God cares more about the hungry widow than the rich and powerful who are able to pull strings.
Nonetheless, after the crash in ’87 I was having an informal conversation with a parishioner about how this market was actually a buying opportunity. He went about telling all his friends, my parishioners, how the pastor had been looking forward to the crash so he could make money in the market.
I share this story as an illustration of how what happened to you happens to people of good will all the time. Some of it is because we hear what we want to hear. Some of it is because people misunderstand. And some of it is sheer cussedness. I encourage you to listen to your inner lights, which in my book are guiding you to a more profound humanity than nearly every other economic commentator I can think of.
Blessings,
Jack
Greetings Alessio, I may sound BIASED because I did not have a SON but 2 wonderful daughters and if I did have a Son, he would look just like you. Your parents must be very PROUD. But, I must disagree with your conclusions. you see the banks, ( ie, financial institutions) should have relized that TRUST and DISCLOSURE were thier most prized asset, not making money. Anybody can make money or profits, even an illiterate indivisual. But they are building for the future and by caring for the GOOSE that lays the golden egg. If thier GREED and AVARICE propeled them to choke the goose, they should suffer the consecunses of thier actions. Maybe then the next generation will learn thru suffering that you live a LIFE and not TAKE it at once.
Monyey is not the PROBLEM, but the LOVE of money. If they cannot be guided by MORAL and/or ETHICAL standards, then they should REAP what they SOW.
God Bless you and your family.
Alessio,
Thank you so much to take your valuable time to explain some things to me and other people who don’t always get the big picture.
What you are doing takes time and energy.
I for one am very appreciative.
Stay positive !
Aloha from Honolulu
jb
Couldn’t agree with you more…
Dear Alessio
I totally agree with you that the financial institutions were allowed to become so powerful that they became too big to fail and the Governments ie the tax payers had to bail them out.
Dear Alessio,
Hi Aleesio, I am from Hong Kong who is working in the financial industry and would like to share some of my observation. I agree to most of your argument on the video, however I think the argument is yet to be completed. Basically, if the governments in the Europe really decided to restrict the executive remuneration across all the gigantic financial institution, what happens are the banks are most likely to increase the basic salary for those executive. Hence, those basic salaries would appear on the running expenses of those institute which are more open to the public. Ultimately, if those executives are not happy with the package, it is very likely for them to become an entrepreneur in terms of setting up new hedge funds which would not be TBTF. In addition, if the law is really going to be enforced like what the Switzerland is about to do, the bankers would probably looking to switch to asia or USA for more attractive payrolls which would probably brings a positive impact to most of the financial center like Hong Kong.
Alessio,
If I was interested in “gang” mentality I wouldn’t follow you at all.
I can get the standard opinions all day on TV and the internet.
You aren’t required to publish the standard views, you tell it like it is.
Thank you!
Alessio, Ciao.
It’s fine that you speak your mind, and yes, the Top 5 People on the planet probably control the markets and most everything else. That’s why they created Asset-Backed Securities (bank insiders called it “Ass-Money” because they knew it would be worthless eventually). They also allowed real estate bubble, easy money bubbles, etc. to continue.
However, you are very much mistaken when you say they had to save the day with tax-payer money in the US in 2008. Please don’t believe what Paulson was saying on TV those days. That was like watching a Soap opera on TV. They had to convince the people that they were doing the right thing.
In reality you should know that the financial system would not have collapsed at all. Say Bear Stearns and even a few more go out of business. The bad assets go to zero, but the good assets are then purchased by the remaining institutions at rock bottom prices. The purchasers end up stronger and capitalism works well. Let the weak fail, the strong will flourish.
We would have had a bear market, with a great recession, and later everything gets better. But the Powers-That-Be in the US now thiink they can stave off all recessions with easy money. One day it will no longer work. In fact the have taught the rest of the world to also print money. Haha. They are only delaying the inevitable correction. Instead of having recession, we will probably end up having a “Greater Depression”.
Sorry, Alessio, but you were incorrect this time. On stockcharts public charts I am sharing some long term charts for educational purposes. I intend to help people from losing their money, as 90% of the public is wrong at market extremes. Also, I will show how to make money over time. Lots of it.
Have fun and keep up the good work.
Frank Spadafora.
Alessio:
It’s me again. I hope you don’t mind if I try to help educate by sharing my charts. I have nothing to sell. I just want to help the public, as i believe they get taken advantage of most of the time.
“People think Wall Street was created to make you money. No, Wall street was created to seperate you from your money in the long run.”
Unknown Trader.
http://stockcharts.com/public/1720655
Thanks
Frank Spadafora.
He who can properly define and divide ,is to be considered a god. –Plato
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I will repeat here ,what i wrote to a previous post of yours Alessio ,only adding this.
People talk about regulation ,saying that we have too much already. That we do not need more for the markets to function.
The regulation we have is in the narrow frames of the system ,meaning it is for the control of the everyday activities of the people. We need less.
The regulation we need is for the broader frames of the system ,meaning we have to control the bastards that have hijacked the system and manipulate the energy flow of it.
Define and divide people.
DEFINE AND DIVIDE.
WAKE UP GOD DAMN IT. ALL THE SOLUTIONS ARE PRESENT.
THAT IS WHY THEY ALWAYS ATTACK GREECE. WE FUCKING KNOW EVERYTHING.
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One of the laws of the universe is the law of the opposites. Everything has an opposite and the extremes connect. Another is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When we ,the human beings create a system ,in order for that system to function properly ,we must imitate the laws ,otherwise the laws will destroy the system.
Alessio is absolutely right. Recession is one thing ,depression is another. Depression is an extreme. And since the bankers created an extreme bubble growth ,the opposite of it being absolute depression ,in order not to let the bubble burst at its extreme and connect with its opposite we had to bail out the banks a little.
Just a little though so as to cut the negative momentum. As weird as it may seem. The banks are not the bankers. Yes the bankers are corrupt and try to screw everybody ,because they have hijacked the system and manipulate the use of the banking mechanisms (and not only). We must try to correct and balance the system ,not bailout the corrupted individuals. But as long as people do not understand how a system functions ,the limitations ,the needs ,the HISTORY ,as long as people do not know how to define and divide for better understanding , as long as people fall victims to notion manipulation ,people will be meat. One notion manipulation is the notion of neo-liberalism. In action it is neo-conservatism with corporations and bankers being the kings and queens.
I really am sorry for those that do not understand that we can not have:
1. Absolute free markets
2. Absolute controlled markets
I am not referring to stupid ideologies.
The laws are absolute. Period.
WAKE UP PEOPLE.
Hi Alessio I totaly agree with you, but at the same I think that keeping allive zombie economy will cause even bigger damage in the future, because I realy don,t think that people going to change and will stop being greedy, but if governments wuld let to collapse all the major banks(yes it wuld be collapse of global economy) it wuld be even harder for people, but world cud start everythink all over again, but this time there wont be TBTF it wuld be NTBTF (not to big to fail)