Were you, or someone you know, affected by the Financial Crisis of 2008? Wonder what the 1% does with their enormous wealth? Do you feel like the game might be rigged? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then new author Elliott Bringman’s "Betting Against America", is a must read!
While the 2012 US Presidential Election brought to light Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s Cayman Islands accounts, nobody was able to dig deeper into what these accounts actually do. Based upon his extensive time working around offshore hedge funds for the Bank of New York Mellon, Bringman’s "Betting Against America" goes where others have not. Bringman utilizes his insider knowledge to show how the nation’s financial elite used offshore accounts during the financial crisis to buffer themselves from the disastrous policies they openly promote.
Through risky “Global Macro” investment strategies, banks such as BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs have turned Planet Earth into one big gambling platform, where those with the means to do so can place bets for or against global winners and losers respectively. Bringman argues that those in power can now make money off of their policies, regardless of how disastrous it might be for the rest of us, by simply knowing how to play the capital markets.
While BNY Mellon touted they created a financial “unsinkable ship,” Bringman shows how the 2008 Financial Crisis would prove to be the Achilles’ Heel for Global Macro. “Global Alpha,” as the strategy was marketed, found itself not only in the hedge fund accounts of folks like BNY Mellon CEO Robert Kelly, but also as part of the retirement portfolios of those drawing benefits from some of the United States’ largest public and private pensions. Far from protecting investors from the risk associated with the global financial markets, Bringman illustrates how these derivative-based funds actually amplified it.
With five years having passed since the devastating Financial Crisis of 2008, the United States finds itself again riding yet another bubble. The Dow is hovering around all-time highs and the real estate market is beginning to heat up. More than just diagnosing the problem, Betting Against America offers readers suggestions for those asking what they can do to protect themselves when the current bubble bursts.
While the 2012 US Presidential Election brought to light Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s Cayman Islands accounts, nobody was able to dig deeper into what these accounts actually do. Based upon his extensive time working around offshore hedge funds for the Bank of New York Mellon, Bringman’s "Betting Against America" goes where others have not. Bringman utilizes his insider knowledge to show how the nation’s financial elite used offshore accounts during the financial crisis to buffer themselves from the disastrous policies they openly promote.
Through risky “Global Macro” investment strategies, banks such as BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs have turned Planet Earth into one big gambling platform, where those with the means to do so can place bets for or against global winners and losers respectively. Bringman argues that those in power can now make money off of their policies, regardless of how disastrous it might be for the rest of us, by simply knowing how to play the capital markets.
While BNY Mellon touted they created a financial “unsinkable ship,” Bringman shows how the 2008 Financial Crisis would prove to be the Achilles’ Heel for Global Macro. “Global Alpha,” as the strategy was marketed, found itself not only in the hedge fund accounts of folks like BNY Mellon CEO Robert Kelly, but also as part of the retirement portfolios of those drawing benefits from some of the United States’ largest public and private pensions. Far from protecting investors from the risk associated with the global financial markets, Bringman illustrates how these derivative-based funds actually amplified it.
With five years having passed since the devastating Financial Crisis of 2008, the United States finds itself again riding yet another bubble. The Dow is hovering around all-time highs and the real estate market is beginning to heat up. More than just diagnosing the problem, Betting Against America offers readers suggestions for those asking what they can do to protect themselves when the current bubble bursts.
