The Secret Club that Runs the World can be purchased in bookshops
or on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Club-that-Runs-World/dp/1480597058.
I don't normally recommend books that I haven't read yet,
but in this case I shall. This comes after reading an interview with the author
Kate Kelly in The Big Issue. She has
just published a new book with a very HPANWO-esque title: The Secret Club that Runs the World. The book discusses the possibility
that a secret cabal is operating inside the stock market, specifically the trade
in commodity futures; this is a form of trading which bets on the future price
of commodities- raw materials like oil, minerals and farm produce. There's
nothing inherently wrong with this, in fact it can be useful. For example, if
you run an airline you will need to plan your business for the year ahead, so
you might ask a futures speculator for a forecast on the price of oil so that
you know how much jet fuel is likely to cost during the coming twelve months.
In doing so you might even invest in a direct futures contract yourself to compensate
your company should your forecast be too low. Speculators today earn trillions
of dollars, far more on average than conventional stockbrokers. The problem is
that the futures market is starting to have an effect on the price of goods in
the real world of the everyday consumer. This of course aggravates the poverty
that is endemic in the world today from other causes. The influence of the
futures market comes from the fact that those who trade in current commodities
are trying to regulate their own prices to ensure a profit based on the futures
speculators predictions. No doubt those who have insider knowledge will perhaps
buy or sell that stock accordingly themselves. For example, if many airlines
buy a futures contract based on a coming 10% price rise of oil over the year
ahead, then the owners of oil company stock might be tempted to rig the price
of their own trade in a self-fulfilling prophesy that ensures a good return for
their futures contracts; and indeed the futures people might collude with them
for the same reason. However if this spreads too far then this could result in
a price war that the ordinary person ends up paying for... as usual. The reason
for Kate Kelly's title for the book is that she believes there's a
"club" of those who have access to the full extent of commodity futures
predictions and therefore have the means to control to prices for their own
benefit, and everybody else's loss. Obviously I have very different ideas about
who literally rules for the world;
however, from the economic perspective, there is good reason to be concerned
that this club might well exist and that it could therefore become a pawn in
the more widespread agenda to knock down the world's financial system and rebuild
in the image of those real rulers.
See here for
background: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/max-keiser-in-parliament.html.
2 comments:
I've always wanted to read that book. It's on my to buy list. I hope your well.
Hi Badriyah. Fine thanks. Hope all's well with you. Let us know what it's like if you read it before me.
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