Oppenheimer's Fidel Gheit Accuses Goldman Of Manipulating Crude Market

"It is no secret that Zero Hedge follows every utterance by Goldman Sachs (Morgan Stanley, not so much - it is sad just how irrelevant MS has become when it comes to swaying any opinion at all) as pertains to the firm's outlook on various commodities, simply because by the very nature of the firm's trading operations, whereby its prop desk (yes, Goldman's prop desk is alive and well) controls a substantial amount of the actual commodity outstanding (in either paper or physical form) and then advises clients to do the opposite of what the firm itself is doing. In essence: using its economy of scale (or monopoly, however one wishes to define it), Goldman can sway the market this way and that with one simple "client" note. The recent fiasco whereby Goldman downgraded Brent on April 12 only to upgrade it two days ago, using the very same assumptions, is nothing more than just the latest example of what we have claimed over and over is outright market manipulation. Today, we find we are not alone after Oppenheimer's Fidel Gheit accused the firm of precisely the same thing on Bloomberg TV: "Unfortunately, without repeating the names of the brokers, everybody knows who the usual suspects are. These are the people in 2008 that were making a bet on $200 oil. This is another form of market manipulation in my view. Whether or not they are influencing the market and manipulation could be a stronger word, but they are influencing the market. They are doing things that could be beneficial to them but harmful to the rest of us. That is where government comes in and says stop, enough. You have a Ferrari or a Maserati and can go 120 mph, but guess what? Those of us who can only go 60 miles per hour will be pulverized. That is where the government has to come in and say there is a speed limit here, but that is not happening." Of course, if Oppenheimer was large enough and influential enough to do what Goldman does, we are 105% confident Fidel would be singing a totally different tune..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/article/oppenheimers-fidel-gheit-accuses-goldman-manipulating-crude-market?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29