Update: Some are questioning the real identity of Alessio Rastani – is he one of the Yes Men, a group that “impersonat[es] big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them… target[ing] leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else”? The BBC issued a statement that they believe he’s for real, and Forbes did a followup interview with him that suggests he is as advertised.
Jaws dropped in the BBC newsroom yesterday when trader Alessio Rastani predicted that nothing can really save the Eurozone from collapsing (“smart money knows the market is toast”), and admitted that he “dreams at night” of another 1930s-type crash that would provide traders like him with an opportunity to profit.
Yves Smith calls “booking mistake” Rastani “the bland, reasonable face of predatory capitalism.”
Sources:
“Trader on the BBC says Eurozone Market will crash” YouTube 9/26/11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA&feature=player_embedded
“Trader on BBC Sounds Alarm About Market Crash” Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism 9/26/11 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/trader-on-bbc-sounds-alarm-about-market-crash.html
