From Wall Street to the City (E370)

Short selling hit the news this week as a new dynamic emerged in the free market economy of the US. Online traders took on the big boys of Wall Street resulting in a $3 billion bailout to keep a hedge fund afloat. The Reddit movement has been met with mixed reactions from the media and the political class, but with most of the media owned by hedge funds, there's a whiff of vested interest. Is this an innovative new move by activists who would have once been camped out on Wall Street, or are the origins much older? Back in 2010, Stacy Herbert and Max Keiser launched a campaign to “short” silver to expose the rigged markets in a supposedly free market economy. So, we invited Max, the champion of bitcoin, onto Sputnik to give his overview of a system which takes money from the masses and puts it in the pockets of plutocrats.

And what is happening in the City of London? What kind of economy do we have in the UK? From the perspective of an American free market capitalist, the UK is decidedly socialist with vast sums of money being pumped into the economy. The public purse is currently printing huge amounts to rescue failing businesses in order to save jobs (and the economy) once we emerge from the pandemic. It makes sense to give handouts now, but is all the money finding its way to the people who need it? With dividends being paid to shareholders from the public purse and money being used to lay people off who are then re-instated on less favorable contracts, there appears to be little scrutiny. So, we invited Phil Dobbie to give his thoughts on how the economy can flourish once the coronavirus is under control.

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Podcast https://soundcloud.com/rttv/sets/sputnik-orbiting-the-world-1