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Use of cocaine in the financial industry (UK/US)

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Pulitzer

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 11, 2013
Messages
9
Hello fellow Bluelighters,

I am a journalist investigating on the part of cocaine in the outbreak of 2008's financial crisis (amongst other factors, obviously). On that precise topic and more broadly, I am looking for testimonies from people working in that industry, and who use cocaine to work.

For that story (for a French print magazine) I am travelling to London on next Friday and to NYC end of June/beginning of July, two places where we can meet if necessary.

Full privacy/anonymity will be guaranteed.

Thanks by advance for your answers ;)
 
Some rich people are really slimy and like escorts and doing coke. Some of these people are people that make financial decisions. You're not gonna get much more of a story than that, there's no facts involved. Can anyone find any evidence this even happened? and even if it did, did it ever really affect anything or happen more?
 
People taking prescription stimulants for school, high-pressure jobs, & multiple low-pay jobs would be more prevalent, IMO. Living in NYC I feel like most people (middle-upper class, party-goers, club fiends, etc) end up doing coke like once a month or more just because it's around them and they find it enjoyable in these situations.
 
for clarification: are you talking about the usage of cocaine during the 08 financial crisis....or the usage of cocaine as part of the reason FOR the 08 financial crisis?
 
I Live in London and can tell you that bankers,brokers etc were all taking coke way before 2008 and in vast amounts - going back to the mid 90's
 
It could be argued that cocaine gave us the good times too. I think it is a bit of a stretch to suggest that the GFC was directly caused by cocaine use by financiers. Sure plenty of people in these businesses used cocaine but pretty much any where you find wealthy people you will find charlie. Are you also flying to Hicksville USA and interviewing meth users who borrowed beyond their means and couldn't pay their motgages thus creating a mountain of bad debt for banks to try and offload? What about hitting LA and asking if Hollywood's cocaine use is to blame for lazy film making giving us nothing by squeals and remakes for the past 10 years?

Low hanging fruit in my opinion......
 
One Thousand Words said:
I think it is a bit of a stretch to suggest that the GFC was directly caused by cocaine use by financiers.
Low hanging fruit in my opinion......
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I'm just trying to verify and document what stated some physicians, as you can see in my previous post. Plus, there is some anecdotal evidence, including: Madoff's office was nicknamed 'The North Pole', Bear Stearns' (first company to collapse in 2008, before Lehman Bros. or AIG) former CEO Jimmy Cayne bore cocaine on him all day long. You can also read the book 'Cityboy', which opens on the account of an analyst making his bank lose £1.2M because he is on cocaine.

Besides that, doctors and brokers I have seen for my story emphasize the similarity of "adrenaline shots" you get in doing cocaine and while quickly winning money on the markets.
 
i read those 2 links...and that is complete horseshit. I think it is complete and utter nonsense to suggest that the use of cocaine, or any illicit substance, in ANY way shape or form, even in the most minuscule fashion, had an impact on the financial crisis. Much less any type of cause-and-effect relationship between cocaine and the financial meltdown.

I'm a daytrader and extremely passionate when it comes to markets and the rest of the financial world, and devote a LOT of time studying those markets (and anything related)..especially the 2008 panic. Therefore, I would like to think that I somewhat know what i am talking about on this topic and can guarantee that that there is absolutely NO connection between the 2
 
yeah, horseshit's the word! I took cocaine while working in the City (not as a money man but still) in 2008 and it made me miss work once, maybe coke-induced sickdays played their part but really, crisis is an aspect of capital, like Marx said!
 
dankJ said:
i read those 2 links...and that is complete horseshit. I think it is complete and utter nonsense to suggest that the use of cocaine, or any illicit substance, in ANY way shape or form, even in the most minuscule fashion, had an impact on the financial crisis.
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8( But he's a journalist, man... He gets paid for this shit.

Drugs being the route of all life's problems is GUARANTEED story sell. Sure, it may sound like horseshit to you... but so what when the Daily Mail pay thousands for these stories...?

Pulitzer said:
Hello fellow Bluelighters
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lol... since when were you a "fellow bluelighter"? You only joined last week!
 
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Pulitzer said:
I'm just trying to verify and document what stated some physicians, as you can see in my previous post. Plus, there is some anecdotal evidence, including: Madoff's office was nicknamed 'The North Pole', Bear Stearns' (first company to collapse in 2008, before Lehman Bros. or AIG) former CEO Jimmy Cayne bore cocaine on him all day long. You can also read the book 'Cityboy', which opens on the account of an analyst making his bank lose £1.2M because he is on cocaine.

Besides that, doctors and brokers I have seen for my story emphasize the similarity of "adrenaline shots" you get in doing cocaine and while quickly winning money on the markets.
Click to expand...

My experience is successful people like cocaine because they are egotistical, adrenaline chasers not because of it. A CEO isn't the one at the coal face making the mistakes, they are just the ones who take the fall when things go wrong (or collect the bonus when things go well).

Cocaine use is nothing new in the capital, unless there was a rogue batch that caused the perfect storm it is naive to blame charlie for the GFC. Markets crash as often as they soar. 1987, the tech bubble of the early 2000's and the 2008 GFC are neatly bookend by boom times. I can tell you cocaine use has been stable throughout these times.
 
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This all stemmed from something the Daily Mail said twisting the words of Prof Nutt. It is absolute bollox, the cocaine industry built Miami, it also built alot of the Costa Del Sol, it did NOT cause the financial crisis and if you even go ahead with writing another bullshit article on the matter you are a piss poor excuse for a journalist. Do some research and write something worthwhile.
 
Dr_Robotnik said:
This all stemmed from something the Daily Mail said twisting the words of Prof Nutt. It is absolute bollox, the cocaine industry built Miami, it also built alot of the Costa Del Sol, it did NOT cause the financial crisis and if you even go ahead with writing another bullshit article on the matter you are a piss poor excuse for a journalist. Do some research and write something worthwhile.
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That's pretty much what I wanted to say in the first reply but I didn't want to be an asshole. A story like this is BS.
 
One Thousand Words said:
Are you also flying to Hicksville USA and interviewing meth users who borrowed beyond their means and couldn't pay their motgages thus creating a mountain of bad debt for banks to try and offload?
Click to expand...

uh, they were deliberately missold those mortgages and should never have been able to obtain them in the first place. It is not their fault, the blame lies squarely at teh feet of the bankers.
 
Pulitzer said:
Besides that, doctors and brokers I have seen for my story emphasize the similarity of "adrenaline shots" you get in doing cocaine and while quickly winning money on the markets.
Click to expand...


can say the same about skydiving, rock climbing, jet-skiing, any kind of 'extreme sport', etc etc anything that provides an adrenaline rush. but any comparison or similarities end there.

Do people in the financial world use cocaine? Sure they do....but I doubt its a higher percentage of the overall work force than any other industry. People use illicit substances all over the world, in ALL walks of life, rich-poor, educated-non, employed-not, young-old...its nothing new and the world continues. But again, to suggest that cocaine and the 08 crisis has ANY connection is ludicrous. It was brought on by a real estate bubble, cheap money, and over-leveraged balance sheets.
 
My brother was a lawyer for one of those banks in London for a decade leading up to the gfc. There is a reason they set up mobile ER stations at canary wharf during bonus season. I have taken cocaine with him in their offices but it was hardly a snow storm of hookers and neck ties around the forehead. In fact most of them are alcoholics, but I doubt that would make an interesting read. When the gfc hit he helped pick the carcass clean, received a bonus and got transferred to Singapore to continue there.

A more interesting article would be how most of those banks still paid out bonus as the markets crashed. How does a system exist where people make money when things go more than a little pear shaped?
 
money basically robbed from the british taxpayer. I read some estimate the figure is around $40bn
 
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