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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Jul 23, 2013, 08:07 AM Jul 2013

The Huge Threat to Capitalism That Republicans Are Ignoring

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/the-huge-threat-to-capitalism-that-republicans-are-ignoring/277985/



Over the weekend, the New York Times published a jaw-dropping story about how Wall Street investment banks are slyly manipulating commodities markets to make billions at the expense of consumers.

Is that description too abstract? Here's the lead example:

Hundreds of millions of times a day, thirsty Americans open a can of soda, beer or juice. And every time they do it, they pay a fraction of a penny more because of a shrewd maneuver by Goldman Sachs and other financial players that ultimately costs consumers billions of dollars.

The story of how this works begins in 27 industrial warehouses in the Detroit area where a Goldman subsidiary stores customers' aluminum. Each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles 1,500-pound bars of the metal among the warehouses. Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again.This industrial dance has been choreographed by Goldman to exploit pricing regulations set up by an overseas commodities exchange, an investigation by The New York Times has found. The back-and-forth lengthens the storage time. And that adds many millions a year to the coffers of Goldman, which owns the warehouses and charges rent to store the metal. It also increases prices paid by manufacturers and consumers across the country. Tyler Clay, a forklift driver who worked at the Goldman warehouses until early this year, called the process "a merry-go-round of metal."

Only a tenth of a cent or so of an aluminum can's purchase price can be traced back to the strategy. But multiply that amount by the 90 billion aluminum cans consumed in the United States each year -- and add the tons of aluminum used in things like cars, electronics and house siding -- and the efforts by Goldman and other financial players has cost American consumers more than $5 billion over the last three years, say former industry executives, analysts and consultants.
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mindwalker_i

(4,407 posts)
4. Your title implies that Republicans give a shit about captialism
Tue Jul 23, 2013, 10:42 AM
Jul 2013

Just like them saing they're "pro-family" or "pro-life," it's exactly that: something they say. It has no relation to what they believe. It's a keyword for certain groups of people to make them feel good about voting Republican, regarless of the fact that those people don't care about either of those issues either.

Republicans don't want capitalism nor a free market. They want a system where a few companies hold monopolies - and pay for their protection with campaign contributions. Defense companies are great for this because Republicans can guarentee a steady stream of money from taxpayers, who are easily manipulated into giveing their de facto support for spending their money thusly.

Brickbat

(19,339 posts)
5. But people will stop buying things if we put a tax on them! And houses would stop trading if we
Tue Jul 23, 2013, 10:44 AM
Jul 2013

taxed high-speed transactions! My sales will go down if you make me add a .01 percent tax! Tiny incremental changes will halt commerce as we know it!

Unless people don't know about it, apparently.

zeemike

(18,998 posts)
6. What it amounts to is a tax on the consumer
Tue Jul 23, 2013, 11:04 AM
Jul 2013

That is put there by Wall Street.
And there is no doubt they are the takers, because they provide no service for the money they receive.

Kablooie

(18,571 posts)
8. Republicans would approve of this.
Tue Jul 23, 2013, 04:42 PM
Jul 2013

They aren't for capitalism.
They are for whatever the richest lobbyists want.
If lobbyists wanted the total destruction of America, the Republicans would be for it.
(Some Democrats too I'd bet)

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