Rigging the US market

April 4, 2025

Ever since markets have existed — over 5000 years — unscrupulous individuals have known how to rig them. The usual trick is to drive prices up, sell out to promote a crash, then buy in at disaster prices – and get very rich.

Amazingly, America, that cynosure of smart business, does not seem to get the Trump gameplan: it is to crash the US economy so his billionaire mates can swoop in and snap up the best pieces at bargain basement prices.

Stock exchanges usually have strict rules against this behaviour – but there is no law that prevents a president deliberately crashing a country’s economy in order to perpetrate the same scam on a nationwide scale, (mis)using tariffs or any other fiscal instrument.

When Americans ask: “Why is Trump taking down our economy?”, they should instead be asking “Cui bono?” – or “Who stands to gain?”. The answer is: the cashed-up super-rich oligarchy.

Their goal is to buy up the best bits of America on the cheap – and own the country as a private venture.