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Alessio Rastani: Is BBC Market Trader Really Yes Men Founder Andy Bichlbaum?
If it’s too good to be true then it very often is.
A city trader who set jaws dropping on Monday after apparently confessing that he goes “to bed every night and dreams of another recession” has been branded a hoax.
Self-styled trader Alessio Rastani, 34, made world headlines after his bizarre appearance on the BBC.
But his interview has come under close scrutiny – resulting in Rastani being linked to a group of Internet “imposters” known as The Yes Men.
Many believe Rastani is in fact Andy Bichlbaum who created the group as a way of exposing lies and telling the truth in society.
'Rastani' is accused of a series of similar hoaxes including an appearance on the BBC in 2004 in which he claimed victims of the Bhopal disaster would receive compensation.
In the YouTube video from the 20th anniversary of the incident a man – who looks and sounds remarkably like Rastani - says he’s a spokesman for Dow Chemical which is paying out the money.
In the YouTube video from the 2004 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster a man – who looks and sounds remarkably like Rastani - says he’s a spokesman for Dow Chemical which is paying out the money.On Tuesday the BBC stood by the authenticity of their interviewee. "We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax."
“He is an independent market trader and one of a range of voices we've had on air to talk about the recession."
Forbes.com has also conducted a telephone with the mysterious trader who says he lives in south London.
In it He says he is obsessed with trading and that he has a book he’s trying to get published.
But on the question of hoaxing and asked if he’s heard of the Yes Men he says: “Heard of it before? Not quite sure why they’re calling me that. I have no idea where that came from.”
The Forbes interviewer then asks: “Because there’s a video of you posing as a Dow Chemical spokesman.”
He then answers: ”A Dow Chemical spokesman? Have you seen this video? That can’t be right. I’ve never spoken to Dow Chemical before in my life. Maybe it’s a fake. Are you sure about this? Honestly, listen, I’ve no idea where that came from. That interview yesterday was one of the first ones I did live."
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54 Comments so far
Show AllI'm glad this guy has the money and time to goof around. Certainly a laughing matter, I suppose. Let me know when "The Yes Men" help topple the U.S government....yawn, do we really need another "Borat" type commedy clown?
This is speculation. The trader looks 10 years younger than the clown. He actually laid out some truth here. Go listen to the interview.
Yes, I think you're right. And, he is telling the truth, even though it sounds absurd (which is probably why what he says is almost humorous).
I listened to it early yesterday and thought it was quite entertaining. He quite candidly exposed the sociopathic mind-set of the financial industry and traders, including himself.
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I think that when he says that Goldman Sachs rules the world he was using hyperbole to make a point: that Goldman has incredible influence, yes, but more to the point, that it is the financial elite as a whole who run the world, not the "governments", who are the junior partners in the Big Business-Big Government partnership.
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Pretty obvious why they want to discredit him. Yet on the other hand, some have speculated that he is a shill hired to scare people out of the Eurozone and into American treasuries and dollars. Of course, for many traders these days, that would just be a temporary strategy - like running from one burning building to another before it collapses on you, as one person put it yesterday. Most traders who are convinced of inevitable collapse are long on Precious Metals.
In one form or another, a day of reckoning is coming. Casino/financial capitalism is the parasitic stage of capitalism whereby it consumes the "host" until there is nothing left. Hear that giant sucking sound? That is the sound of the global financial system devouring itself.
He doesn't look like Bichlbaum to me. I think he was dead serious (perhaps a bit overdramatic).
I love the ending by the news presenters in regard to Rastani's confession that he dreams of recession. "Do you dream about the economy at night?" "I try not to...nightmare."
Let us know when YOU topple the US government.
I don't care if he's a Yes Man or not. He knows what he's talking about, IMO.
Heres a photo of Andy Bichlbaum. "I report you decide..."
Yeah, they're not the same person. I just checked out some more photos of Bichlbaum online, and there are differences. You can tell that Rastani is younger, too.
If those two in the pics are supposed to look alike, then I'd say those who think so have far worse vision than mine.
"Many believe Rastani is in fact Andy Bichlbaum"
Nope, they aren't the same guy. Rastani is much younger. He may be a real trader like he claims. Wouldn't surprise me, as what he said really wasn't that out there as another article posted today points out.
At just a glance I could see the huge differences in the ears and noses.
Yeah, I was wondering if the reporter was going to argue that Bichlbaum had facial reconstruction surgery or something. How could anyone think those two people are the same person?
I agree, shadre, and I think the people who think these two are one person are the same people who think that all the phony Bin Ladens in all the different videos are also one same person.
Same thing I thought of. Sadly, most Americans are pretty obtuse to details, and if we're talking facial features of anyone outside of one's own ethnicity, the obtuseness is multiplied tenfold.
The fact that those fake bin Ladens, particularly the 'smoking gun' bin Laden, are still used as a part of America's propaganda machine is beyond perplexing, and very symptomatic of what deep crap we're in. If we're this easily fooled, imagine how many really well concealed lies have been kept from us...
Hilarious! Whoever he is, it looks like he's having to restrain himself from laughing at times.
I'd say that this reporter is pretty bad with faces. I happen to be very good at recognizing faces and I'm telling ya that those are two different guys. Seriously, they're not even close.
They have different voices, too.
I agree. Not even close.
Isn't it great that we cannot tell satire from reality?
Kinda what I was hinting at in my first post....aint post-modernism grand?
BRAVO either way!
(stocks? bonds? sound like torture implements.)
Confirmed here.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bbc-releases-official-statement-alessio-trader-rastani-he-perfectly-legit-and-interview-was-not
Rastani's NOT Andy Bichlbaum. Rastani's not a hoax. He's the real deal, speaking the truth about his views and intentions - however "jaw-dropping" that is.
He's probably right, too. E.g. in saying "The markets are not ruled by gov'ts. The market's ruled by Goldman Sachs". And "In the 1930'ies crash ... there were som people who were prepared to make money off that crash".
I'm sure a lot of people would want this to be a hoax. Many will have an interest in this being seen as a hoax. Or even only that doubt is cast on the descriptions. Exactly because they're no hoax.
He's a trader. He made it clear that he has taken a position to sell the market short. He's now talking it down at every chance.
"He's probably right, too", Truth, knowledge, and rightness has nothing to do with what those animals live from. He's just a financial casino junky trying to score by contributing to the market crash.
The fact that it is all bullshit whether it comes from Christine Lagarde, Ben Bernanke, or a sociopathic trader like this interviewed by the BBC that some people cannot tell from a hoaxer is exactly why we are truly screwed. We and they haven't got a clue how to make it better. Most don't care because they are too interested in how to make a buck or gain power out of the suffering of the masses. At best they try to see as far protecting their own asses. And they say what we need is leadership.
I'm afraid we need a lot more than that, like an education on what makes society successful, and I promise you it is not competition, greed, and war. Try cooperation, understanding, mutual respect and compassion. When we've got that down we might start considering sustainable economic structures that don't require theft, usury or exploitation of each other.......
Till then we'll just tip back our hats and stare in amazed disbelief at traders who proudly relish and in effect cheer on the collapse of the economic system upon which the lives of billions depend.
These sociopaths are going to crash the economy for good, and if that doesn't kill the U.S. peak oil, or overextended empire will. The smart person now is hooking up with a rural commune, or looking to buy land you can grow food on away from the cities. I wish the revolutionaries at Occupy Wall St., and and Occupy D.C. the very best of luck, but I'd also be looking at a plan b if I were you...
If the "Plan B" is limited to a small-scale materialist cocoon plan, how small-minded is that? Can we take a view that encompasses more than our present lives--that includes, rather, a vision for all future life on this planet? If we look at the problem as how to transition--to fully transform--this world system into an actual "beloved society," as MLK put it, then maybe we have a chance. Yes, this sounds almost insane--but radicals always sound insane to most people. But there's no limit to how many people can engage a visionary effort at world transformation. And sometimes these things snowball.
What part of "commune" did you skip over? Did you just skip through what I posted or was it a deliberate misinterpretation of what I said so as to attack a straw man wholly of your own creation?
I for one support co-ops, communes, CSAs, farmers markets, libraries and other local collective action as an alternative to both corporate and state control. So try again, this time with less straw men please!
Thanks!
This is not Bichlbaum.
Its Huffington Post showing their true liberal colors in trying to spin the little truth that came out. That's all.
I am not sure anything HuffPo does any longer is liberal. You do remember they are now owned by AOL?
It is no longer acceptable to speak the truth even if you have to lie to do it. You cannot speak loudly or with conviction. You cannot state what is happening in plain site. They don't care about finding a solution, they just want to make money! No shit, Sherlock wow now that is shocking news! He did not say anything that we didn't know, or hasn’t been said many times before, so what's got everyone in such a stir? He used plain words, simple language, he spoke directly. No euphemisms, no double speak,or obfuscation. The truth is it is shocking to hear the truth anymore from the media. So it must be a prank!
Yep, not Bichlbam. You would be a fool to not do what Alessio Rastani says. Pull your money out of your savings account NOW, before the big crash of 2012, and hide it away from Goldman Sachs under your mattress. Don't let the big banks sucker punch your 401K again. Don't be a fool! This is not fake.
Speaking of sociopaths / Psychopaths :
"The hubbub is just starting to pick up after NZZ Online’s report yesterday on a University of St. Gallen study that shows stock market traders display similarities to certified psychopaths. The study, authored by MBA students Pascal Scherrer and Thomas Noll, compares decisions made by 27 equity, derivative and forex traders in a computer simulation against an existing study of 24 psychopaths in high-security hospitals in Germany. Not only do the traders match their counterparts, but, as Der Speigel succinctly puts it, the “stockbrokers’ behavior is more reckless and manipulative than that of psychopaths.”"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/09/26/new-study-old-news-stock-traders-are-psychopaths/
Forbes goes on.... "Today, Alessio Rastani, a stock market and forex trader in Europe, admitted as much to the BBC (full video below), in a brutally honest — and chilling — interview: "
interview looked real to me and sounded like almost every trader I evre knew in the 90s. Rastani, however, just got into hot water in what is still a very tight, incestuous little club. Hopefully he's already banked a crapload, because as much as hedgers insider trade, a blacklist can end a career.
great stuff. everything he said is basic catechism to the left now--but I can imagine a lot of liberals in shock over what at this point shouldn't even be in doubt.
Another thing of note he touched on. After they have finished looting the national treasuries of the world, their next target are the pension funds. Protect yourselves.
There is really no "hoax" about it. The Depression and the Re=Depression has made the rich richer. The numbers show that the wealth of the One Percent has escalated drastically since the Bailout. They cleaned everybody out , squirreled away all the money, then had their new acquisition, the gutted US Government, unload the US treasury into their hands and the new management will even be cleaning out the life and death savings in SS accounts, ....eventually, you know in the Lame Dick term. Don't worry Cindy Lou Who, they're just taking the busted SS system and medicare back to their workshop to "fix" it.
Kinda like Henry the VIII having the Pope declare divorcing and killing all his wives "good" under the name of "we are authority with words on paper" rule for idiot sheeple.
The only thing hoaxy about it is these people that are robbing the country blind never admit or explain anything. Even under oath. America, your government is gone. It is nothing but a shell under new for-profit management. We have no government. They are systematically selling it out and shutting it down to nothing more than a machine to steal from the people and provide nothing but war and debt. We're almost all the way there, four more years of Prez O'sold-ya or some right wing crack pot with no effort to even hide a complete lack of conscience, will do it on Christmas eve at midnight.
Anyone wanna take bets. Maybe New Years eve in the middle of the night. Or maybe we'll be treated to a phony con conversation like the Debt ceiling in which Obombum hands over everything in a trade for 6 weeks of Health care for poor kids.
Hope you know how to live off the land and can keep said land. Your death is money in their pocket. Oh, and of course, the same people are poisoning, aka polluting, everything so try not to breath either.
I have no idea why my paragraph breaks are not working.
you need to type in "less than sign" the letter "p" "greater than sign" after each paragraph with no spaces.
I've read that the 1930's Depression actually did not make the U.S. rich richer as a whole; on the contrary, it had a leveling effect, as the rich lost much more than the poor.
However, such leveling is not happening through this current period--I guess because of the massive bailouts of the banks while working people get almost no help. Instead, the chasm between material haves and have-nots yawns wider.
This world capitalist-materialist-self-alienated system will most certainly entirely crash (even if we don't know exactly when), so it certainly does seem wise to consider what is really important to live for and start developing that direction.
We will all die. Most Westerners think that with death comes oblivion... but do we really investigate this assumption very carefully? Many others have set stories about what will happen at death, which go equally unexamined. Some of the most highly developed bodies of human knowledge contain guidance on how to undergo investigation of death and of the meaning of life. Perhaps we would do well to look to these sources for guidance on our present predicament, including the predicament of how do we "save" ourselves and all those we care about.
It's clearly not Andy Bichlbaum - especially if you're somewhat familiar with the Yes Men and have seen Bichlbaum in a number of interviews. But it's hilarious that this poor day trader is being accused of a hoax for merely stating the obvious.
BRANDED A HOAX BY THE MSM TO DIVERT ATTENTION FROM THE TRUTH HE TOLD.
This is obviously NOT Andy Bichlbaum. But the corporations would rather you guffaw at the false accusation of hoax than consider the truth he just told. What do you expect from the Huffington Post, All The Tabloid Partisan News That's Fit to Schtick.
That's where I am too.
Geez, is it so hard to believe that traders think the market is going to go down? Economic crisis is in the news everyday. Anyone who hasn't heard of hedges, short-selling and put options has a kindergarden view of the markets.
The part I couldn't understand is how people were supposed to make money on treasury bonds in this market
peace
Karl
treasuries are where you go for stable albeit low returns in stock and bond downturns. in other wods, 2% on a 10 year bill is better than losing your shirt on a plunging stock.
I wonder if the money markets are all that sound right now. I remember when people's pensions were basically stolen.
For the first time it has hit me: these guys at the very top don't know what they're doing, anymore, and we're adrift. I'm beginning to think it's time to do the safest thing one can do, and just try to get out with the shirt off one's back. Any thoughts on that?
As a side note, this guy was speaking truth to power, and the corporate media is, once again, trying desperately trying to distract us from the subject at hand. It's a muddled mess right now, and perhaps it's time to put any money you have where they can't get their grubby hands on it.
They know exactly what they are doing. And they are legally allowed to at this point. But we should all realize they don't share our pain they thrive on it or why would the price of gas go up each time things get worse for the rest of us. They are not interested in the health of our societies. Only their bottomlines.
The gas price surge from 2 summers ago was due to market speculation, not supply and demand. Great system, isn't it?
Definitely not a hoax. These guys (i.e., Wall Street folks) are psychopathic. If they were not, they could not continue in the profession because they would kill themselves like any sane person would do with the knowledge that his career causes so much harm and devastation across the globe. That is also why these traders can be so brazen and not even concerned with their candor - they truly do not know right from wrong, good from bad. Nor do they care. See the trader from "The Corporation" discusssing 9/11:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQOXepaCjk
Not a hoax people. One has to wonder what motive the Huffpo is operating on to say it was. The YesMen have always come clean when discovered. Not this time.
I am thinking it would be easy enough to prove one way or another. They are just trying another form of disinformation. And I am thinking since AOL's buyout of HuffPo it's not going to work this time. I am thinking Arianna got hoaxed. And since she chooses not to pay her writers, she deserves it.
http://www.mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2011/09/27/alessio-rastani-fake/