Yves Smith — Who Wins in the Financial Casino?

I received a message last week from a savvy reader, a former McKinsey partner who has also done among other things significant pro-bono work with housing not-for-profits (as in he has more interest and experience in social justice issues than most people with his background). His query:

We both know that financialization has, among so many other things, turned large swaths of the capital markets into a casino 

Here’s my thought/question: is there a house? 

The common wisdom is that the ‘house wins’ in casinos 

In all likelihood, at least in the great financial crisis, the TBTF banks were the ‘house’… yet, it’s at least a bit different from a casino house because, absent the bailouts, those banks would not have won. 

So, who or what was really the ‘house’? Was it the Fed? Did the Fed actually ‘win’? 

Maybe the ‘house’ is the 1% …. or, more precisely, the .01%???

Naked Capitalism
Who Wins in the Financial Casino?Yves Smith

War Between F500/Multinationals and the Cowboy Financiers Finally Starting?

Commentary by Roger Erickson:

FBI Said to Be Looking Into HP's Allegations on Autonomy

Open season on Goldman Sachs, JPM & similar CITIpests coming next?

Slings & arrows season starts first, then muskets & black powder, then Open Season on all deer-in-the-headlight banks previously considered TBTshoot? An official culling, to reduce damage to economic drivers from the mounting roadkill? 

Many people who once rooted for bambi are now openly hoping he gets stomped by RoboFraudzilla.  "God's" work is now cleaning up the messes certain people left all over Main Street while supposedly doing HER work.  Once the curtain is pulled back from fauxEden, expect all of God's little workers to turn states evidence and rush to out-squeal one another.  (Just one word of investment advice faux you:  "earplugs".)

Once speed limits lift, you see who's been streaking Main Street naked after dark - and it ain't pretty.  Just saw a bumper sticker that said: "This Vehicle Swerves at all Financial Frauds".  The occupants said they were tracking targets using a mobile navigation app and infrafraud goggles to see hot cash flows.  They appeared to be fully loaded and locked (on targets). They also had a funky tune playing, called  "Up Against the Wall Control Fraud Mothers".

Wall Street criminality rolls on with no one held accountable

They're not going to stop until they have control of everything and we have nothing. That's because there is zero fear of punishment as the lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and cops are all bought.

CFTC charges Royal Bank of Canada with massive fraud

CFTC alleges Royal Bank of Canada engaged in massive fraud.

Royal Bank of Canada is being sued by U.S. regulators over claims that the Toronto-based lender engaged in a series of illegal futures trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars to garner tax benefits tied to equities. Canada’s biggest bank made false and misleading statements about “wash trades” from 2007 to 2010 in which affiliates traded among themselves in a way that undermined competition and price discovery on the OneChicago LLC exchange, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a statement today. The allegations will be laid out in a complaint set to be filed in U.S. District Court (1071L) (1071L) in New York, the CFTC said. Continue reading.

Here we go again. More fraud in the financial sector. It never ends. The most corrupt industry on earth, by far.