Cap and Trade gets Rolling Stoned

It isn;t often that Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone and I are on the same page, but here we are.

Taibbi excoriates Goldman Sachs for its role in the internet, oil and housing bubbles, and then identifies their next great scheme

And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits — a booming trillion- dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an "environmental plan," called cap-and-trade. The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

Message to Matt. It's not just Goldman Sachs that's in on the fix. It's also the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.  And lookie who is on the receiving end of the fix. Remarkable.