Sub-prime carbon is coming [Lets hope not. ]
Behind the scenes, large financial houses are moving in stealthily. In 2008, carbon trading worldwide reached $126 billion and is projected to grow to become a $2-$10 trillion dollar market, or “The largest commodity traded world wide”. The largest. That’s bigger than oil, coal, gas, or iron.
Banks want us to trade carbon
JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse are just a few financial houses calling for emissions trading schemes. (None of them seem to be calling for a tax?) Those who broker the trades are guaranteed to make money.
Journalists who repeat IPCC press releases without investigation are unwittingly acting as unpaid agents for large financial players.
This “free market” is not free, and is not based on a commodity, but on unverifiable, unauditable permits for actions that depend on “motivations”. They are issued to companies to build clean factories they would otherwise not have built (who can tell?). The top two auditors in Europe have both been suspended in the last 12 months. Carbon permits have no value other than by government decree. It’s another fiat currency to be exploited by financial institutions.
Bankers benefit — you pay
The potential for fraud and corruption is limited only by what the voting public will put up with (and what they are aware of). Once this legislation is in place it will be impossible to unwind without major compensation claims. Big bankers win either way.
It sucks wealth from those who produce real goods.
joannenova.com.au
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Worth remembering that carbon trading was a scheme heavily promotd by Enron:
“Since 1976, Enron [and predecessor company] employees have been at the forefront of developing air credit trading policies for governments and businesses…. Enron today is the largest and most sophisticated air emissions credit and allowance trading organization in the United States. Since 1990, Enron has participated in over 80 SOx allowance transactions and has also been active in establishing policies for trading NOx in the United States and carbon [dioxide] world-wide.”
- “Enron Corp.’s Participation in Air Trading,” Enron Capital & Trade Resources, November 4, 1996 (copy in files).
“If implemented, [the Kyoto Protocol] will do more to promote Enron’s business than will almost any other regulatory initiative…. The endorsement of [CO2] emissions trading was another victory for us…. This agreement will be good for Enron stock!”
- John Palmisano (December 12, 1997) from Kyoto, Japan. Quoted in Bradley, Capitalism at Work, p. 307
“If anyone has environmental credit needs, that’s what we do. We want to be to be the clearing house to monetize available credits or to manage risk.”
- Kevin McGowan, director of coal and emissions trading, Enron Corp., (Enron Biz, November 29, 2000, copy in files)
“We are a green company, but the green stands for money.”
- Jeff Skilling, CEO, Enron Corp., quoted in Capitalism at Work, p. 310. |
