Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

“Only a select few in the top tax bracket are benefiting from this, and the majority of you ain’t in it,” said former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Observers are once again raising concerns about insider trading on Wednesday after a trader took a colossal crude oil short position just over an hour before a US-Iran peace deal was reported to be on the horizon, causing prices to fall.

The Kobeissi Letter, a financial newsletter, reported on X that at 3:40 am on Wednesday, “nearly 10,000 contracts worth of crude oil shorts were taken without any major news.”

RECOMMENDED…

Oil Giants’ Profits Soar as Trump’s Iran War Estimated to Deliver $1 Trillion Hit to World Economy

Thanks to Trump’s Iran War, Big Oil Raking in $30 Million Per Hour in Windfall Profits

This was equivalent to $920 million in notional value, which the letter described as “an unusually large trade” so early in the morning. But it would soon pay off.

At 4:50 am, just 70 minutes later, Axios published an exclusive scoop by Middle East reporter Barak Ravid that the White House believed the US and Iran were on the verge of agreeing to a one-page “memorandum of understanding” to end the war, which included more nuclear negotiations, one of the key sticking points for US President Donald Trump.

By 7:00 am, just over two hours after Axios dropped its report, oil prices had fallen by 12%, allowing the savvy investor to make $125 million in a matter of hours, which led to accusations that it was yet another example of “epic insider trading” by those in the know about Trump’s plans.

Prices have since rebounded by about 8% after Iran announced the creation of the new “Persian Gulf Strait Authority,” to mediate the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz on its terms.

The Trump administration has already been deluged with accusations that its members are using insider information to take advantage of financial markets and prediction market apps.

Last month, an active-duty US special forces soldier was indicted by the Department of Justice after he made about $400,000 betting on Polymarket that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be removed from power, a bet he allegedly placed using classified information about an operation he himself was involved with.

More bettors collected around $1 million in profits from bets on the specific timing of Trump’s war with Iran in late February. The Financial Times also reported a surge of more than $580 million in oil futures trading right before Trump announced a pause in strikes on Iran’s energy facilities in March.

Of course, Wednesday’s bet theoretically could have been made without the aid of insider information.

The new peace framework is the latest in what has seemed to be an endless pattern over the past several weeks in which US officials tell media outlets that a peace agreement is on the horizon, causing oil prices to dip, only for it to collapse later in the week, often with Trump issuing hostile threats or making new demands.

It has become such a familiar story that some have speculated that the announcement of productive ceasefire talks is deliberately choreographed to calm oil markets and bring down prices, which have become a growing problem for Trump among voters.

But as The Economic Times explained, the bet placed Wednesday morning likely “is not a routine hedge” or “a portfolio rebalancing move.”

“At that hour, in that size,” it said, “a crude oil short of that magnitude is a deliberate, high-conviction directional bet.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a one-time Trump cheerleader who’s become one of his leading critics, suggested Trump’s erratic approach to negotiating an end to the war was just a tool used by him and his allies to profit.

“When is everyone going to start realizing that the on-again, off-again war/peace rhetoric is really just insider trading? And sprinkle in some murder,” Greene wrote on social media. “Only a select few in the top tax bracket are benefiting from this, and the majority of you ain’t in it.”

Democrats in Congress have urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate what Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) suggested could be “mind-blowing corruption” by the White House, not only related to Trump’s wars, but also to his tariff regime, which has caused similar market chaos that bettors have been able to capitalize on with fortuitously timed wagers.

But critics have described profiting from the machinations of a war that has killed more than 1,700 civilians as particularly grotesque.

“This has to stop,” said Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov. “Lives on the line so they can insider trade!”

Article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

• Hegseth Broker Reportedly Tried to Make ‘Big Investment’ in Weapons Stocks Just Before Iran War
• ‘Mind-Blowing Corruption’: Traders Placed Massive Bets Minutes Before Trump Post on Iran
• Watchdog Demands Insider Trading Probe After ‘Highly Suspicious’ Bets on Iran War
• ‘Pretty Suspicious!’ Was Trump Insider Behind Winning Polymarket Bet on Maduro Kidnapping?
• Senate Democrats Urge SEC Probe of Possible Trump Market Manipulation, Insider Trading
• Senate Democrats Urge SEC Probe of Possible Trump Market Manipulation, Insider Trading
• ‘Unprecedented Kleptocracy’: Sanders Slams Trump Family’s Presidential Profiteering
• ‘Fuck This Coin’: Trump Crypto Gala Admission Price Plummets as Meme Coin Value Down Over 90%

https://socialistworker.co.uk/palestine-2023/protests-at-raf-fairford-demand-end-to-british-complicity-in-iran-war/

‘Trump’s imperialism and militarism is spreading racism, it’s spreading far right politics and we need to oppose it’

Warplanes roared overhead as hundreds of people marched to RAF Fairford airbase on Saturday.

The base in Gloucestershire is one of 12 US bases in Britain. It is home to the huge B52 and B1 bombers used by the US to spread murder and destruction in Iran. 

A group of Iranians displayed photos of all the children killed in a school in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the assault. And protesters lined up in a chain along the barbed wire fence of the base. 

Marzi, an Iranian living in London, told Socialist Worker, “I’m here to oppose the war in Iran. There’s a ceasefire but it’s quite fragile and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We oppose bombing in Iran and everywhere around the world.”

Protester Andrew pointed to Britain’s complicity in the war. He told Socialist Worker, “I don’t think we should be involved in it in any way, including our bases being used. It’s not ‘our war’ but we are involved. By letting the US use these airbases, we are involved.”

…

CND general secretary Sophie Bolt told the marchers, “There is a fragile ceasefire. But Donald Trump is again threatening to commit war crimes in Iran. He is talking about bombing bridges and power stations. 

“The airbase at RAF Fairford will be used by the US to do that. It’s absolutely central to Trump’s illegal war in Iran.”

She added, “Starmer is lying to the British public when he says Britain’s base at Fairford will only be used defensively. He has no say in how these bombers are deployed. It is not going to make us more safe. We have been dragged into this war and that makes us all a target.”

But Bolt also pointed out the unpopularity of Trump’s wars, explaining that US veterans and their families had joined protests against the war last week. “Trump’s catastrophic war is leaving him more and more isolated, both internationally and in the US”, she said. 

…

https://socialistworker.co.uk/palestine-2023/protests-at-raf-fairford-demand-end-to-british-complicity-in-iran-war/