Of course, to a chap of my age the description above instantly calls to mind the image of the City gent. Nowadays, he's more likely to be wearing a shiny blue Italian suit with no tie and - Shlock-Horror - brown shoes! The chances of him being a true 'gent' are about the same as they have always been since Stock Exchanges first opened - tiny. You will have guessed that my Post today is on the subject of Stock Exchange wheeling and dealing, and you will be expecting the usual level of personal expertise from me on this subject, as with others, that is, not much.
I have been prodded into this subject by a coincidence of e-mails. The first came from my e-pal, 'JK', who provided me with a link to the Rolling Stone site and an article by one of its writers, Matt Taibi. You can read it all here but I should warn you that it runs to 8 pages, even so, Mr. Taibi writes clearly and understandably on a complex story of financial jiggery-pokery in which he accuses high officials of the Bush administration of conspiring with Board members of some of the big Banks to bring about the downfall of Bear Stearn which was the catalyst for the financial earthquake which has ensued. In particular he points the finger at Tim Geitner, who is now Obama's Financial Secretary and the executive board of Goldman Sachs who, as Glenn Beck detailed on Fox News a few weeks ago, have provided an extraordinary number of senior executives to fill places in the Obama regime. The fact that Goldman's have just announced handsome 3rd quarter profits indicates that they, at any rate, have skated across the desperately thin ice without too much trouble! Mr. Taibi implies collusion and financial misedemeanour at the highest level but I am not qualified to comment on those accusations. Taibi is very persuasive but in the 'Comments' (which irritatingly begin at the bottom and go up rather than down by date) a writer 'tlott1999' pours cold water on the whole thing and accuses him of gross exaggeration. However, the essay is well worth reading for the light it sheds on the mechanics of insider dealing and short selling.
No sooner had I read that than an e-mail arrived from Cafe Hayek, one of my absolute favourite blogs for economic good sense as you would expect from its name, telling me that one of the Blog's principals, Don Boudreaux, had written an article for the WSJ intriguingly entitled "Decriminalise Insider Trading" - my emphasis. As always, Boudreaux, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, writes with pellucid clarity and impeccable logic and I urge you all to go and read him argue what appears to be a hopeless cause.
ADDITIONAL: For those "bewitched, bothered and bewildered" by all the arguments for and against America's efforts to erect a national health service, here is an article by two keen investigators who have been fact-checking 'Oprah' Obama's actual words. You may remember the fuss when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out "You lie!" as 'The One' was speaking to Congress on this subject. Well, you may not be too suprised to learn that Wilson was dead right, and the authors of this article demonstrate 21 lies from Obama's own words.
Thanks again to Cafe Hayek.
Keynes was a pretty successful inside dealer.
Posted by: dearieme | Monday, 26 October 2009 at 10:48
Yes, I remember reading something about that but didn't he nearly come unstuck at some time - or am I confusing him with Churchill? (Heh! Memory, where did I put it down ...)
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 27 October 2009 at 08:48
Churchill almost went bust. I'm not sure about Keynes. The best Keynes story I know was about his explaining his investment in grain futures to a fellow Fellow of King's.
Fellow: "But Maynard, what if you have to take delivery?"
Keynes: "It will fit in the chapel".
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 27 October 2009 at 11:08
Love it!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 27 October 2009 at 11:17