Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

paulkrugman.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 367 posts

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#141

Post by thisisit »

cbdevidal wrote: post #108
hrldcpr wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably people who voted for Trump are somewhat responsible, and include a lot of car drivers. (Not to imply that many Democrat politicians aren't also owned by AIPAC and big business.)

I didn’t vote for Trump but I don’t blame the voters. I don’t think many people foresaw him doing this on either side of the political aisle. Other stuff we disapprove of, yes. But not this. I say that because he had famously resisted to enter extended conflict in his first term. Maybe he wanted to but now has the chance since he’s in his final years. (At least, I hope it’s his final years.) But I didn’t hear anyone…

At what point people will realize "his first term" isn't a good bar and its certainly not because "he resisted" rather he at least had some better advisors and GOP had some control over him.

This time around GOP has been flattened into his mouthpiece and the government is fully of sycophants. Its not that he's in his final years more like his yes-men are afraid of being booted out and replaced with another power hungry nincompoop sycophant.

If people fell for this "but this didn't happen in the first term" even then they are to blame for this mess, they voted for this person in the first place. Just like being ignorant doesn't let you escape from legal consequences, it should let people escape from outcome of their actions.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#142

Post by ifwinterco »

usualtuesday wrote: post #125

Yes, the article is right. And every time an article like this is published, HN predictably goes into the same tirade. What are you actually going to do about it? Nothing. So keep complaining and hoping things change without changing.

It's more evidence if any was needed that the US is now definitively in a late imperial phase of decline - US elites have become corrupt. This is classic decline of empire stuff.

So no you can't stop it, but knowing that does at least let you make decisions with more clarity in your own life

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#143

Post by toasty228 »

usualtuesday wrote: post #125

Yes, the article is right. And every time an article like this is published, HN predictably goes into the same tirade. What are you actually going to do about it? Nothing. So keep complaining and hoping things change without changing.

> What are you actually going to do about it?

Discussing it is against this website's TOS and the law in most countries

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#144

Post by sheiyei »

fooblaster wrote: post #119
trollbridge wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article displays a laughably out of date view of futures markets, too There are people and institutions, such as oil producers, who will need to sell oil at a future date. They want to lock in the price today on those future sales. There are also people and institutions, such as airlines, who have a future need for oil and would like to lock in the price today. Airlines haven’t hedged fuel in a long time and gene…

Airlines can't raise the prices of tickets sold months ago. There is still financial reason to hedge.

The trick is to sell tickets based on the cost at time of sale, and just cancel flights when it's convenient.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#145

Post by marcosdumay »

saynay wrote: post #126
cbdevidal wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t vote for Trump but I don’t blame the voters. I don’t think many people foresaw him doing this on either side of the political aisle. Other stuff we disapprove of, yes. But not this. I say that because he had famously resisted to enter extended conflict in his first term. Maybe he wanted to but now has the chance since he’s in his final years. (At least, I hope it’s his final years.) But I didn’t hear anyone…

It was pretty obvious he was wanting to enter a conflict with someone, and was mostly held back in his first term by the actual professionals in his cabinet at that time. But the guy wanted a military parade with tanks rolling through DC on his birthday, wanted to nuke a hurricane, and forcibly annex Greenland. It isn't really surprising that once he replaced the sane people with sycophants, he would start something.

Or, more specifically, by 2020 he was sending military boats to attack Iranian targets and trying to force Russia to respond.

He only stopped because of COVID.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#146

Post by bcjdjsndon »

ifwinterco wrote: post #142
usualtuesday wrote: post #125

Yes, the article is right. And every time an article like this is published, HN predictably goes into the same tirade. What are you actually going to do about it? Nothing. So keep complaining and hoping things change without changing.

It's more evidence if any was needed that the US is now definitively in a late imperial phase of decline - US elites have become corrupt. This is classic decline of empire stuff. So no you can't stop it, but knowing that does at least let you make decisions with more clarity in your own life

I'm just glad I'm alive to witness it. Ww2 is what finally sank Britain's declining empireafter ww1, I'm hoping Iran and maybe a global war finally knocks them off that top spot and the east takes over

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#147

Post by simonh »

cbdevidal wrote: post #108
hrldcpr wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably people who voted for Trump are somewhat responsible, and include a lot of car drivers. (Not to imply that many Democrat politicians aren't also owned by AIPAC and big business.)

I didn’t vote for Trump but I don’t blame the voters. I don’t think many people foresaw him doing this on either side of the political aisle. Other stuff we disapprove of, yes. But not this. I say that because he had famously resisted to enter extended conflict in his first term. Maybe he wanted to but now has the chance since he’s in his final years. (At least, I hope it’s his final years.) But I didn’t hear anyone…

Trump's statements on these issues have always been self contradictory.

On the one hand he says Russia would never have dared invade Ukraine if he was President, yet he was also against military support for Ukraine before the full scale invasion, and says that Ukraine's plight is basically their and Europe's problem.

He was adamantly against bombing Syria in response to Assad using chemical weapons while Obama was president, then when they used chemical weapons as soon as he became President he bombed them for it.

He's advocated for the USA not getting involved in military conflicts, while also advocating for massive increases in military spending and capability.

This has always been his approach, say one thing while very often actively doing the other. Promote domestic manufacturing, while putting massive tariffs on the inputs on which American manufacturing depends, many of which are only available in the required quantities abroad even for current production.

Trump voters have been scammed by a self-professed scammer that's been successfully prosecuted for scamming, and they know it. They were quite happy for him to betray, backstab, double-deal and scam whoever he liked on whatever issue he liked, as long as it was people they didn't like or care about.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#148

Post by trimethylpurine »

mrtesthah wrote: post #117
ericmay wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That’s not what US intelligence says. The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. https://www.factcheck.org/2025/06/trump-gabbard-comments-on-...

This article seems irrelevant.

It cites a publication dated March of '25 that must be compiled from information preceding that by a few months.

The US didn't go to war in or around that time period.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#149

Post by cbdevidal »

marcosdumay wrote: post #145
saynay wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was pretty obvious he was wanting to enter a conflict with someone, and was mostly held back in his first term by the actual professionals in his cabinet at that time. But the guy wanted a military parade with tanks rolling through DC on his birthday, wanted to nuke a hurricane, and forcibly annex Greenland. It isn't really surprising that once he replaced the sane people with sycophants, he would start something.

Or, more specifically, by 2020 he was sending military boats to attack Iranian targets and trying to force Russia to respond. He only stopped because of COVID.

If it were that obvious we would have specifically heard it it predicted. Maybe someone did but I didn’t hear it, and I listen to politics daily.

Expressing a desire to take Greenland but not actually doing so was a move out of his book Art of the Deal.

Re: Grand Theft Oil Futures: Insider traders keep making a killing at our expense

#150

Post by imglorp »

What if the whole point of the war was planned to generate trading opportunities? Every crazy tweet or announcement another cash out.

It's like every time you see a poorly run business and you think, how can they stay open? The answer is it's usually a laundering operation, a tax shelter, and who knows what else. The message to us poors is, nothing these people do is as it appears; there's always a bunch of stacked, leveraged advantages.

https://newrepublic.com/post/192244/trump-celebrates-destroy...

Post reply on HN