A CITIGROUP AFFILIATE (PHILBRO) CONNECTICUTT MIRACLE:
A little back of the envelope math:His "commission" est 10% = 100M.
Profits must be 1B.
est "arbitrage profit" = $1 per barrel traded , possibly a lot less.
ergo volume traded = 1B barrels, possibly a lot more.
total barrels output per day Saudi+Iran+US = 22,740,000 barrels.
So, he traded AT LEAST 100% of the TOTAL output for these three major oil producing countries every day for the equivalent of 44 days.That moves the market. It creates speculative "demand' and raises prices.Bona fide arbitrage does not result in such such massive volumes of trade by one person.
Remember - he's only ONE guy that we know about.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/citigroups-oil-traders-10_b_251512.html
JP MORGAN CHASE, MORGAN STANLEY, CITIGROUP ANCHORED SUPERTANKERS FOR NINE MONTHS OFF THE COAST TO SPECULATE ON HIGHER OIL PRICES AND HELP RAISE PRICES AT YOUR LOCAL GAS STATION...
The leniency extended toward Citigroup permitting it to engage in commodity trading was subsequently extended to FHC's including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, all of whom are playing the oil/commodities game and not to be outdone, also have fully loaded vessels at sea (JP Morgan having recently chartered the VLCC Supertanker Front Queen, loaded with 2 million barrels of heating oil for a duration of nine months to sit at anchor off the coast of Malta. The commodity speculation doesn't stop with oil, but these bank's traders along with the likes of Goldman Sachs (now a Bank Holding Company) take huge trading positions on all manner of commodities for which they are clearly neither producer nor consumer, but only speculators. Given recent experience and its enormous cost can the Fed and the Treasury truly say that these rote speculative activities -- "pose little risk to the safety and soundness of the depository institution."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-brown/the-public-option-in-bank_b_252161.html
President Obama has repeated his call for a public option in health care, in order to create some competition for the insurance companies and keep them honest. We the people need to call for a public option in banking, in order to create some competition for the private banks and keep them honest. In Wall Street's latest affront to the public trust, the nine mega-banks graced with $125 billion in taxpayer bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) were reported last week to be paying out billions of dollars in bonuses to their executives. At least 4,793 bankers and traders received more than $1 million each in bonus payments, although it was one of Wall Street's worst years on record. After months of investigating banker compensation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on July 30 (...)
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