Engineered Famine: What Stalin did for pure hate, Wall Street does for profit
Between 1932-1933, the USSR engineered the Holodomor, a peace time famine in Ukraine that resulted in the death of up to 10 million people as a deliberate act of genocide.
In 2007, major financial firms colluded and conspired to invest in corn all over the world. This doesn't mean actual corn, this means the actual right to produce corn (the same way that investing in oil isn't buying up oil, it's buying up development rights). Why? As a result, companies all over the world began to panic and buy up more shares resulting in a mass increase in food prices, famine, riots, etc. At the peak, the Wall Street firms sold off their shares for a massive profit leading to a massive drop in prices, lost jobs, lost savings etc. The bastards then blamed the famine on biofuel production during the gas crisis they themselves engineered in a similar fashion the next year, driving up the price of oil even further. Now there's rumbling that they're planning a repeat performance with corn again.
The basic plan is this. Pick a vital commodity. Collude with other firms to convince investors to buy up shares in the commodity en mass until you corner a significant chuck of the market. This forces panic buying among companies around the world creating a dramatic rise in prices. Then sell off all shares causing a massive drop in prices while collecting massive profits. Rinse and repeat.
Questions:
1. This kind of activity clearly violates both the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the RICO Act among other laws but these laws have largely not been applied or enforced since 1980. What needs to happen to force the government to enforce their own laws and bust up or nationalize these pigs?
2. Since these acts result in millions of deaths, destabilization of governments and economic crises on a global scale, hence constituting crimes against humanity should the responsible parties face the death penalty?
3. Should corporate criminals in general face the death penalty due to the scope of their crimes?
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I'm one of the people benefiting from this ingenius scheme, so how is this a bad thing?!
__________________
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
That question indicates that you are either ignorant, or not funny, or possibly a clinical psychopath.
Regardless, even if you are one of the few people financially benefiting from this, these things have a way of coming back and biting you on these ass. Just ask Imelda Marcos.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
Well, I don't know who Imelda Marcos is, and I'm not very funny, and am a little sick in the head, so I guess I'm all three. Regardless, I'm making so much money for this that I can pay to fix those things!
Gonna wiki Imelda Marcos.
__________________
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
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Re: Engineered Famine: What Stalin did for pure hate, Wall Street does for profit
I wondered how this was legal, one boring Sunday afternoon, a couple of weeks ago.
It turns out that it's not legal, based on your point #1.
WTF?
And, yes, I agree: if this caused the deaths of thousands of people and you can prove that the individuals knew that it would happen when they drove the prices up, then that is the legal definition of murder.
It is similar to pulling the plug on a life-support system for a fully coherant person (they just need life support to stay alive): it's still murder if the person didn't want to die.
Anyway, I find it odd that we can speculate on food and livestock like they are stocks and bons. Sure, they are capital...but they are definitely not something you would want to spike or drop in value. Isn't this something the SEC could create a regulation for? (Wait, they did...I just have to refer back to your point #1.)
But wait, none of this affects me as an American citizen. Why does this matter to me?
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
No surprises here. This is why it's good to be king. Haven't the rich and powerful always taken advantage of the masses? Capitalism is just slicker about it.
As long as the Golden Rule ("The one with the gold makes the rules") holds sway, I'm not sure what can be done, outside some form of revolution or internationally organized lawyer Dream Team. Either way, you're looking at years, if not decades, before any retribution/compensation occurs.
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Re: Engineered Famine: What Stalin did for pure hate, Wall Street does for profit
People just don't know how to invest properly and laws were put up to protect nonaccredited investors. Unfortunately they go by the amount of money the person has and not the skill. People don't realize when it becomes a "hot item" it's already too late to buy.
This was Stalin's effort to force the Ukraine to accept collectivization of farms for the whole USSR, which they had refused to do.
Monstrous? Sure. That's why many Ukrainians joined up with the invading Nazis (the ones who could convince not to be shot out of hand), and even worked as guards on concentration camps like Sorbibor. Unfortunately, they paid for collaborating when the Nazis were pushed out.
I can't judge people like Stalin & Chairman Mao, because they were at the head of revolutionary movements, and to this day the opinion of their legacy (in their own countries) is divided.
__________________
"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
About point #1. These aren't "financial regulations", these are federal laws that have been unevenly or barely enforced since Ronald McReagan slimed his scaley hide into the white house. The way most large corporations are run and considering their market share, they technically do not have the right to exist under the EXISTING LAW.
__________________ Land of the free, home of the brave...
Do you think we will ever be saved?
In this land of dreams find myself sober...
Wonder when will it'll all be over...
Living in a void when the void grows colder...
Wonder when it'll all be over?
Will you be laughing when it's over?
Been saying this for a while now,
capitalism kills.
__________________ "Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian."
- Emma Goldman
Last edited by Liberator on Oct 17th, 2010 at 11:46 PM
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
but once you incorporate representatives and capitalism into the mix the entire nature of democracy is rendered obsolete. and the end result is control by corporations i.e. modern day america
wall street runs america, banksters run the world. such is the nature of capitalism.
__________________ "Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian."
- Emma Goldman
Last edited by Liberator on Oct 18th, 2010 at 02:19 AM
Re: Engineered Famine: What Stalin did for pure hate, Wall Street does for profit
Daniel Plainview wins again.
1: Oddly enough, the exact thing so many anti-government groups are now calling for, just after stapling a tea bag to their hat. Sadly, what the tea party does not realize is that their group is funded by billionaires, like the Kochs, who feed on their fears while offering them a return to less complicated times. The ultimate pay off for them, though, is victory on election night and the illusion that their party is A) not the republican party and B) going to do a damn thing to change the situation.
2: No. My experience in business and legal education has proven that the more a country is turned over to corporate interests, the more vague the law becomes and the less realistic it is to actually find something with which to charge them. But, that little voice in the back of my mind says they should be strung up like Mussolini.
3: see answer 2
The thing is these corporate thieves will get away with it for two reasons.
1. The media won't make much of a report on it (which feeds into the population being ignorant).
2. They are protected by the police, military, politicians, etc.
__________________ "Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian."
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Oct 17th, 2010 05:39 AM
