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From The Socialist newspaper, 28 January 2009
Ferengi dealers
'ROGUE TRADER' Jérôme Kerviel, sacked by the French bank Société Générale after amassing the biggest trading losses in history - £3.5 billion - revealed that he 'made a stock market killing' out of the 7/7 bombings in London.
Only days before the attacks he gambled on the markets that the share price of global insurance giant Allianz would tumble. When the London bombings took place in 2005, killing 52 commuters and injuring 700, the price of Allianz stock crashed and within minutes Kerviel had made about £350,000.
However, Kerviel claims that his ex-employers also "made a fortune" on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.
In fact, making money out of human disasters is meat and drink to hedge fund managers and city traders the world over - a point highlighted recently in the BBC2 documentary The City Uncovered.
In it, several mega-rich hedge fund managers boasted of how much money they made for themselves and their rich clients out of other people's suffering.
One talked of the gains he made from 'short-selling' airline shares immediately after 9/11 and after other terrorist acts such as the Madrid and London bombings.
Another, almost salivating, regaled the programme presenter with a tale of his highly profitable gamble that the sub-prime market would collapse, a situation in which millions have lost their homes.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 28 January 2009:
Era of illusions in capitalism ending
The crisis in manufacturing: Fighting for jobs and living standards
No pay discrimination against young people
Slaughter in Gaza
Coventry protest over Gaza onslaught
Israel: Thousands march in Jaffa against Gaza massacre
Anti-racism
Stop the deportation of Yahya Al-Faifi
Socialist Party campaigns
Socialist councillor opposes Tory plans for education privatisation
Labour's abandoning of the working class
Croydon: Striking against academies
Scotland: Step up opposition to cuts
Socialist Party workplace news
Say 'no' to the Metro privateers
Amicus Unity Gazette left with egg on its face
Victory for left in Glasgow Unison
Solid support for Glasgow strike
Building a fighting Unison leadership
Education
Build a mass movement for free education
Marxist analysis: history
Germany 1919 The Spartacist uprising
International socialist news and analysis
Russia: Bosses sack auto-factory union leader
Courageous socialist activist, campaigning journalist and human rights activist
Socialist Party news
Socialist Party reviews
A People's History of Sports in the United States
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