So how come we don't have any of this?
You're old
past it,
dinosaurs.
Excuse me.
We're Wall Street investment bankers,
with a long, respected reputation
for making our clients very wealthy.
That's what I mean.
Dinosaurs.
You're too big, heavy, and old.
You can't see the new species
that's going to wipe you out.
Lucky we have you.
That's not luck, it's good business.
It's what'll keep you alive
when your fellow dinosaurs go extinct.
So where did you meet this guy?
In a bar.
A bar?
What, a geek bar?
Something like that.
What do they do -
hit on girls with the length of their code?
ha..ha..ha..
I do my research.
Find the places they hang out,
get friendly with our man.
They don't see many girls like me in there.
Good girl.
Clever.
That's why you pay me …
so much.
And then?
Show interest,
get cosy.
By the end of the evening he's hooked.
And now he's here - for you to reel him in.
Come in Nat.
Mr. Diamond, meet Mr. Scanlon.
Good evening Mr. Scanlon, Lloyd Diamond.
I've been hearing a lot about you.
Sit down.
People don't like bankers - have you noticed that?
I'm not a banker.
I don't like bankers myself.
I don't trust them.
Would you like some champagne?
I'm not thirsty.
You will be.
Why did you ask me here?
What do you know about high-frequency trading?
How much do you know?
What most people know, I guess.
In my profession, technology has always helped us
do our job better, and faster.
Counting machines, computers, the internet.
This is just the next gizmo
to make more money quicker.
This isn't technology, it's natural selection.
Welcome to Darwinism Mr. Diamond, and Mr. Dimon.
Can you give us some specifics?
High-frequency trading, or HFT,
uses ultra fast computers
and complex algorithms to trade securities
quicker than the next firm.
The humans don't actually make the trades,
the computers do - in just a few milliseconds.
Species change.
Sure we know all about super-fast computers.
What's so special about this guy?
You'll see, when you calm down.
Drop the attitude, lady.
You work for us, remember!
If you say so.
All I know about him,
is what I heard at this seminar up at Harvard.
quote
“Multinationals have become
the governments of their respective countries.
The actual elected governments
are their clients
their core business.
Dimon and Diamond
with their billion-dollar corporation
have almost complete
control of our economic and political lives.”
Dimon and Diamond is not a corporation -
it's a fucking civilisation!
Is that what you call something that wants to control the world market,
a civilisation?
Civilsations have an unfortunate tendency
to decline and fall.
This is 2014.
Nation states are dead.
They don't have the power anymore -
they're owned.
In ten years, the multinationals
will own 90% of the world.
That's what I said.
Who do you think you are Mr. Scanlon?
What do you think this country would be without us?
We were bankers before you were even born!
You get the point?
I think he gets the point much better than you, Lloyd.
Mr. Dimon!
Whatever.
Look, I don't have the time.
You like money Mr. Scanlon?
Sure.
So do we.
So tell us
how can we soak billions of dollars
out of Wall Street?
The girl says you have some special expertise.
Tell us something that we don't know.
Algorithms.
Algorithms?
Algorithms now control more than 70%
of the US financial transactions.
Most decisions to buy and sell assets
are made by machines.
Algorithms are now so powerful, they're the new
third player on the planet.
Nature
Humanity
Algorithms.
From Dinosaurs, to Man, to A.I.
Is that a new corporation?
Artificial intelligence - but we're not quite there yet,
there are still a few dinosaurs
who are yet to become extinct.
You're losing me.
The global financial system is built around
on the electronic net that we've thrown over the world.
Assets are traded at the speed of light.
The system gives stupendous profits to those with
the largest processing capacities,
and the fastest speeds.
But speed is key.
So how do we get the fastest speeds?
You dig an 825-mile trench, for a fiber optic cable
from Chicago to New York, tunneling through
the Allegheny Mountains instead of using
the regular railway lines like the regular,
old communication networks do.
But that would cost a fortune!
A fortune is a relative word, Mr Diamond,
as you of all people should know.
It's an exclusive line - your own private jet on the web.
So how do we make money?
Speed makes you a predator -
you out-maneuver the herbivores.
Herbiwhat?
Herbivores - the slow-moving mutual and pension
funds where most of the little guys are.
And how do you know all this?
Because I'm young, my synapses still work -
oh, and I hang out at geek bars.
So before the herbivore sees a change
in the market position, the predator makes trades
milliseconds faster, leaving the herbivore with
much less than they would have made.
And this is done hundreds of thousands of times -
in small slices.
Okay, I'm getting it!
Each slice pocketed by the predator
is a penny or less, but when taken together,
they add up to billions of dollars.
Of course you're stealing from the middle class -
money tied up in mutual funds,
college endowment funds,
pension funds - a penny here, and there, and there,
and there.
But they'll never know, will they Donald?
And who gives a fuck anyway?
It's legal -
or at least the trades are too small for the government
to take any interest.
So when do we start?
Yes, that's just it, isn't it?
You don't.
We do.
There's very few people that know how to do this stuff.
I'm one of them.
Where do you get the money to build your tunnel?
From you.
You lend it to us - at a favorable rate, of course,
and then we pay it back once the billions
start flowing in.
Fuck you!
We're the corporation, the bank,
the fucking civilisation - we make the billions - not you!
Not anymore Donald.
Diamond and Dinosaur, Dinosaur and Dimon.
You wouldn't know a high-frequency transaction
if it jumped up and ripped out your throat.
The future's with the algotweakers,
the frequency freaks,
the web predators, hidden in the dark matter
of our virtual worlds, unknown and unimpeachable,
our brains melding oh-so slowly
with the artificial brains we create.
Deal?
Well I'll be fucked.
(background music)
