Wednesday, 28 September 2011
BBC financial expert Alessio Rastani: 'I'm an attention seeker not a trader'
The interview contained such gems as "Governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world [and] Goldman Sachs does not care about the rescue package."
But on Tuesday night the BBC was left facing questions about just how qualified Mr Rastani is to speak about the markets.
In the interview Mr Rastani described himself as an independent trader. Elsewhere he claims he's an "investment speaker". Instead of operating from a plush office in Canary Wharf Mr Rastani works and lives with his partner Anita Eader in a £200,000 semi in Bexleyheath, south London. The house, complete with a mortgage from Royal Bank of Scotland, belongs to her not him.
He is a business owner, a 99pc shareholder in public speaking venture Santoro Projects. Its most recent accounts show cash in the bank of £985. After four years trading net assets are £10,048 - in the red.
How a man who has never been authorised by the Financial Services Authority and has no discernible history working for a City institution ended up being interviewed by the BBC remains a mystery.
The incongruity led to some commentators speculating Mr Rastani was a professional hoaxer. The BBC denied the allegation: "We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax."
However, the BBC declined to comment on what checks, if any, it had done prior to the interview.
Mr Rastani was a little more forthcoming.
"They approached me," he told The Telegraph. "I'm an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking."
So he's more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn't own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.
"I agreed to go on because I'm attention seeker," he said on Tuesday. "But I meant every word I said."
Jonathan Russell @'The Telegraph'
The incongruity led to some commentators speculating Mr Rastani was a professional hoaxer. The BBC denied the allegation: "We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax."
However, the BBC declined to comment on what checks, if any, it had done prior to the interview.
Mr Rastani was a little more forthcoming.
"They approached me," he told The Telegraph. "I'm an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking."
So he's more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn't own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.
"I agreed to go on because I'm attention seeker," he said on Tuesday. "But I meant every word I said."
Jonathan Russell @'The Telegraph'
Sly & The Family Stone - Live on Music Scene (1969)
Hot Fun - Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey - I Wanna Take You Higher
Everyday People - Dance to the Music
JamesWolcott James Wolcott
If Roger Ailes is claiming to steer Fox News less "hard right," I'm guessing that the phone hacking scandal must be about to hit home hard.Roger’s Reality Show
Country star back at 'old stand' (Stars & Stripes Sept 23 1959)
He is Johnny Cash, who has three golden records, each for selling over a million copies. The singer is in Europe to make a few television appearances and line up a tour of military bases next year.
Cash enlisted in the Air Force after high school graduation and was stationed in Landsberg, Germany, for three years.
"I had a small country music band;" he explained. ."We used to play at the, base or in German gasthauses. But I was in a security unit and I couldn't get around much."
After leaving the service, Johnny used his GI Bill to attend a radio school in Memphis, Tenn. While at school he auditioned for a small record company. A month later he cut his first release and it was the beginning of his career as a recording star,
Lately, Cash has been writing his own songs which have been included in an album called "Songs of the Soil." Since he doesn't read or write music, Johnny composes with a tape recorder.
"After I get an idea for a song I cut a tape and listen to it," he explained. "When I finally get it the way I want I turn the tape over to a composer who takes the song and puts it into sheet music."
One song, "Five Feet High and Rising," was inspired by a 1937 flood in his home town of Dyess, Ark.
"I was 5 years old and my dad sent mother and me up to the hill country," he recalled. "I never saw the flood but my dad used to tell me about it."
Another song called "The Man on the Hill" was inspired by a plantation owner who lived in a big white house on the hill in Johnny's home town.
"All the sharecroppers used to refer to him as `the man on the hill,'" Cash said. "They depended on him for money to get seed, or to live on till the crop was in.
"They used to say, if the man on the hill treats us right we'll have a good year."
Johnny has come a long way from picking cotton on his father's small farm. Today he owns a music company, has a contract with Columbia Records, and has just completed two TV films. He will return to Hollywood, where he is now living, to star in a Western.
Just for old time's sake, Johnny will take over as guest disc jockey next Friday morning at 6:05 on AFN's Hillbilly Reveille. It was his favorite program when he was here in the service.
Johnny's kid brother, who also plays the guitar and sings, is in Europe. He is stationed at the 225th Station Hospital at Pirmasens.
For those in the service who want to be entertainers in the country and Western field, Johnny has this advice: "I think a singer should develop an individual style.
"He should sing the kind of songs he has a feeling for. Then when you know what you want — work your fingers off for it."
Ernie Weatherall @'Stars & Stripes'
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