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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

Wow. I had no idea this happened. I'm surprised this story has not had more attention.

I thought the same thing when I first came across this info about a year ago. You might be interested in Matt Taibbi's "The Great American Bubble Machine" article. The title refers to Goldman Sachs, and the various bubbles that they have caused and how they did it: The great depression, tech stocks and the dot com bust, the housing bubble, $4/gal gasoline (and other commodities), the bailout, and their next target - the up-and-coming cap and trade/carbon credits market.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american...

Then there is his other article, on why no one went to jail:

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-stre...

At the time some said that the upstream cause of the Arab Spring was increased food prices.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/world/july-dec11/food_09...

More controversially, some blamed this on the Fed's inflationary QE2 policy (printing money), as food prices went up across the world in real terms. In the US this was an inconvenience, but abroad it was something else.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8492078/How-the...

I used to work at Goldman's. This story doesn't surprise me at all. This is what all good bankers do. I think the story hasn't gotten attention because it is not a story. It is just how things work.

This comment is...amazing.

Much like Paul, most actual people are genuinely shocked about this. It is one hell of a story. The general population does not understand how markets work.

Billions are hungry. The streets are full of protesters worldwide. Retirement funds are gone. Markets are failing. Countries are failing. These are humans, who just want to eat. And for what? To turn $100 million into $200 million?

This is not "how things work". This is not "what good bankers do". This is what greedy sociopaths do. It is reprehensible and disgusting. These people are malicious and should be in prison.

First of all - I wasn't making a value judgement. Personally, I agree with you - it is reprehensible and disgusting. That is part of the reason I don't work at Goldman's anymore. I always found it a bit embarrassing to be associated with them. By "good" bankers - I ment the one's making all the money. Not those who are morally good.

Second - it is how things work. Not just in commodities, but in everything Goldman's does. There is always an angle which greatly reduces risk. That angle might be insider trading, advanced statistics, or just a rigged market. Goldman's is doing nothing illegal that I am aware of or anyone can prove. ...it is just how things work.

Maybe it should be illegal.

Well, it is illegal with Onions, but the prices of those tend to be even more volatile than the ones that people speculate in.

Does it surprise you how many of us are surprised? Even pg?

We don't know how bad it's gotten. If you really think it's reprehensible, it's well past time you (and other insiders, not to single you out) spoke up.

You don't know the half of it! Huge pension funds such as CALPERs, the california public pension fund, invest large sums (go long) passive commodity instruments such as oil and agriculture. These pension funds are insured by the federal government. So the federal government is indirectly subsidizing this activity.

I am not entirely sure but no one has ever called it "Goldman's" in my limited experience.

> Wow. I had no idea this happened.

I worked in commodities and read the article. What happened?

Are you talking about the forced long money? Yeah, we and every hedge fund on the planet skimmed that pool. The dumb money doesn't move the market these days.

We had no idea that bankers literally, directly made people starve to death, which is what happens in the real world when you double the price of bread for a month to make a buck.

The fact that the bankers among us can't see anything odd about this, let alone shocking and disturbing, is still more food for thought for those of us who care to live through the winter.

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