Posted on 06/17/2014 8:54:12 AM PDT by Gamecock
Pope Francis has called on "greedy" bankers to establish a stricter ethics code, and stop getting rich through financial market speculation. He attacked the practice of hedging as ‘intolerable’ equating it to stealing food from the poor.
"It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of peoples rather than serving their needs, or that the few derive immense wealth from financial speculation while the many are deeply burdened by the consequences," Pope Francis said at an investors ethics’ seminar at the Vatican on Monday.
Specifically, the pope denounced the practice of betting on the price of commodities such as corn, meat, and rice, which can drive up food prices and trigger periods of starvation in parts of the worlds.
"Speculation on food prices is a scandal which seriously compromises access to food on the part of the poorest members of our human family," he said.
This Pope called for an end to this “scandal” and said that finance institutions should serve the interests of all mankind, and not just wealthy and privileged individuals.
Pope Francis has been more vocal than any other Pope on the modern superstructure of wealth, which in his first major published work as a Pope, The Joy of the Gospel, he slammed as a “new tyranny” and called on the rich to share their wealth. In the same speech he equated not sharing wealth with the poor to stealing.
There’s nothing wrong with bankers’ making a profit as long as government didn’t make that possible. The Pope is too naive.
When being a big banker was much more an honest job following moral and sensible rules then I would agree with you. That is not however what it has become. These guys are sucking up far more productivity by being crooks. It is the only job in the world where you can make that kind of money just by playing with other peoples money. Including money from the taxpayer and the fed. The fed being the most crooked bankers of them all. The more they get into everything then the more gutted the economies of the world become. I really don’t have the ambition to try and explain what I have learned over the last few years. And I have learned that it is pointless to explain. The information has been out there for anyone who wanted to look and see. MBS’s, Mers ,unnatural speculative tricks, Using taxpayer money near zero percent interest and loaning it back to the taxpayer way above that, and much more
And don’t forget HFT where they see your bid and place theirs ahead of you.
I suggest that you do not understand the capital markets.
I invest every day and have no concern of market manipulation.
I understand your irrational fear...but once you understand the markets, you realize that your fear is unfounded.
So in other words. Talking to you about bankers is kind of like talking to Eric holder about what is Justice.
Do you really want to stoop that low?
Again, you are seeing UFO's and boogeymen where they don't exist.
When I trade, I make a bid at a price, say $25 a share. When my trade executes immediately at $25 a share, who has profited at my expense? What have I lost?
When I read the headline I was hoping he was talking about billion dollar default swaps - but alas!...
Interesting way of looking at it.
I’m also taken with the way Francis appears to be overly assumptive in the motives behind these economic situations.
meanwhile, his colection plates keep on keepin on
It is this one.
Matthew 25:14-30
New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Bags of Gold
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“Do you really want to stoop that low? “
I have the Pope on my side.
LOL...that you do.
Cheating doesn't makes the markets rigged.
Should cheaters be prosecuted.
Well, yes.
Does their cheating change the nature of the markets.
Er, no.
My take... the Pope has bitten off more than the church should be chewing here.
Christ didn’t come to advise the unbelieving world how to make itself a nicer place.
That was a confusion that came when the early church got Rome offered to it on a silver platter. A rationalization or two later, and the church took up this task that was impossible by definition. It has never been quite the same, as the memes that resulted propagated throughout all Christendom.
I could well see advice such as “If you are a Christian banker, these are good rules for conducting your business.” But that is NOT what the Pope has done.
I say he has bitten off more than he can, or the church should, chew.
dems worship social justice, repubs worship the supposed “free market” and the stock market.
All 3 are garbage today.
you sound like Lou telling Bud how important the Stock Market is to society. I bought that line in the 80s too.
Possibly!
I still make money in the market. So if some guys have a system for shaving points...so be it.
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