London Bankers Placing Bets On Number Of Arrests

The Guardian:

At Coq d'Argent, the restaurant atop the salmon-coloured building at Number One Poultry, next to Bank station, two traders were angry that the police didn't seem to be making any arrests. "The demonstrators are goading the police and hitting them, but they aren't arresting anyone," said one.

"I'll make money if they arrest more than 140," he said. Traders, he explained, were putting spread bets on the number of arrests - with the quoted spread on Bloomberg at 130-140. They were also paying out on deaths and if more than 20 protesters were injured in horse charges. The riots, they said, were only a minor inconvenience: "We've been in this morning, made a lot of money and now are chilling out."

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[fredgladys]

Apparently some of these charmers were also waving wads of cash at the crowd through their windows and laughing. The worst of capitalism in action.

[RealHRCFansVoteObama]

Where's Madame DeFarge when you need her?

[Oxonian2001]

Well, I'm calling for Buffy the Vampire Slayer to take em out like other vampires..­.head chopped off and a stake through their big bankerly chests!

[tinatoledo31]

these rioters are anarchists and communists. they are destroying private property. how is waving money at them any worse?

[kalapa]

This just exposes the shameless attitude of the bankers crowd. Cavalier. Perhaps someone should start a bet on how many banks get smashed.

[DailyElitist]

Or they could lay odds on how much more of their corrupt subsidization of the ultra-wealthy people put up with before people start cutting off the banksters' heads.

[Veritas 1]

What is wrong with a few bets (well, the over-under on deaths is a little heartless)? While some outrage at the financial community is warranted and there should be a serious note to the protests, it is perfectly natural for people to divert attention away from their spreadsheets and Bloombergs when there is an entertainment equivalent of a circus outside the office complete with clowns holding "property is theft" and "abolish money" signs.

[calfacon]

A little heartless??? A LITTLE heartless????? The number "injured by horse charges" is "entertainment". Employed by AIG are you? Or totally amoral?

[frederico]

We need to be more like the Europeans and scare a few powerful people into the realization that we expect them to not only clean up this mess but do the right thing. The rich need to stop being bailed out and the middle class needs relief.

[Sleepyjohns]

Aaaaaaaaaa­rrrrrrrrgg­gggggghhhh­hhhhh!!!!!­!!!!! What is wrong with these guys??? Seriously W-T-F are they thinking??? Shut up, shut up, shut up!!!

[Asmodeus]

Lol. Exactly. All I could think was: Sure! Go ahead and take bets on the number of peasants arrested or killed because HOW DARE they resist their subjugation?!

That's right boys. Play with the pirhanna. Does the name Custer mean ANYTHING to these people?!

[Tinsdale]

These are the same guys that ditched their pinstripes and Bowlers when they were out on those streets so they would get their doughy faces rearranged.

[Troubledwawa]

And they wonder why we have a banking crisis.

[acudoc]

Fractional-reserve banking, a way to make gobs of money without lifting a privileged productive finger, breeds this kind of mentality and callousness. It is fraudulent at its core, and attracts scamsters like s#$% attracts flies. The world needs to wake up to the system that allows 10% of the people to collect 90% of the interest skimmed off of the top of a pile of money that was created without consideration, in the sense of contract law. It is not the productive rich against the rest of us, it is the privileged rich who manage this bookkeeping operation and who make mankind their indentured servant. I give genuine acknowledgment to rich people who have made money the honest way----by offering something of value, an innovative idea, often at the cost of their sweat and hard work over a lifetime of service.

[bubbuh]

We have polls.. The Brits have bookies.

[mrcontinental]

Degenerate gamblers until the end.

At least the Brits are taking it facedown, a$$ up, like we are for the money changers.

[Ramirez]

Funny story. The Brits will bet on anything.

If I had been in London I would have taken the "over" as well and I'm surprised the police haven't sorted out more of the chavs. They'll be back tomorrow, though.

[zizyphus]

When I saw the image of one guy smashing a window while a crowd of photographers shot his picture, I thought, this is a set-up. Then to read that they are betting on the outcome of the riots...th­e bankers can afford to hire thugs to start trouble, especially if they can make more money on it. Especially knowing that the bankers are actually gangsters.

[happyez]

Well, as much as the bankers attitude is lousy, it's how things are.

I don't understand the protestors tactics. If it's solely about bringing down the financial system, they haven't impacted much.
If it's about leading to the abolition of money, then they have limited effect.
If it's about this forever-alluded-to 'awareness raising', a sense of confrontation doesn't raise much awareness, only to what happens when you battle police.

So, from a logical perspective, they haven't done much.

If it's about abolishing the bankers jobs, their attitude sums it up. Which is why the protestors work is useless, pretty much.

Only 15,000 got on to the streets. Most under 30, and political. That's not the population.

If there was real change in the streets, then it is likely people would join in. But they didn't.

Yeah, the police were the usual: target protestors, but then again, that's what always happens. Do you keep repeating the same mistake, knowing the outcome?

So, the protestors are doing very little, in the end, to affect what is happening out there.

Until they choose to offer positive suggestions ("abolish money": ok....) or try something new, it's likely a mob thing, a belonging thing, and a way to gain a sense of identity.

All of which does fruck all to help the economy.

[Asmodeus]

"Only 15,000 got on to the streets. Most under 30, and political. That's not the population­."
Reality intrudes: Only 15,000 got on to the streets SO FAR. Most under 30, and political. That's not the population YET.

I would ask you to consider, Happyez that historically, there comes a point of critical mass in these kinds of situations. When enough people have little or nothing to lose, who have every right to be enraged by the callous destruction wrought by the greedy, have become desperate, and bereft of faith in their precious 'system', the whole thing typically melts down in a bloodbath of epic proportions. And that's Europe. Where the general population aren't NEARLY enamored by the machinery of death, personally owned, like we are in America...­.

[Tinsdale]

"Only 15,000 got on to the streets. Most under 30, and political. That's not the population­."

I think Fulgencio Batista said pretty close to the same thing in 1958.

[tbone99]

It does demonstrate to to the powers that be that this situation is causing unrest and since they are elected they better pay attention and fix things.

It is the public equivalent of saying we have our eye on you .

[amkhussein]

sickos... Any bets that one (or many) of them will be leeenched before the year is out ?

[xtown]

"We've been in this morning, made a lot of money and now are chilling out."

What pricks.

[Torrentlover]

What's the spread on the amount of bankers who lied and will lie about receiving a death threat this calendar year?