Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Financial Co-Dependency: How Wall Street Has Kept Shale Alive

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, October 26, 2012

Financial Co-Dependency: How Wall Street Has Kept Shale Alive

Click here to access article by Deborah Rogers from EnergyPolicyForum via Energy Bulletin (more readable).

Using the shale gas industry as an example, the author sheds light on a new kind of relationship that has evolved between investment bankers and industry.

Investment banking has changed over the past few decades. There was a time when a bank was there to provide services to its clients in a partnership type relationship. Then a subtle shift occurred and investment bankers realized that fees could be maximized by employing a different mindset. In short, it no longer mattered whether the client was succeeding because the banks could make money on the way up or on the way down with a “client”. I use this term loosely for a reason.

This, of course, was first dramatized by revelations in Congressional hearings which revealed that Goldman Sachs place bets against their own clients.