Related: Napoleon On Men of Destiny.
The harm that speculators and banksters do to society is enormous. Example: "Funds, speculators pushing up energy prices: U.S. regulator" (Financial Post, February 13, 2013). This type of criminal activity shouldn't be tolerated by a civilized, enlightened, and sane society. Instead of waging a war on terrorists our governments should be waging a war on speculators and banksters.
Here is Napoleon's take. From "The Mind of Napoleon: A Selection from His Written and Spoken Words," edited and translated by J. Christopher Herold. Columbia University Press: New York. 1955. Pg. 96.
"[Conversation, 1801] It seems that trading in securities is the business of every Parisian except such as actually own property. In effect, all that those so-called buyers and sellers do is bet with one another on the prevailing market prices on such and such a date. As a consequence, every one of them, in order to win his bet, takes it into his head to guide the destinies of Europe so as to conform with his aims. Everybody invents facts, comments on facts, disfigures facts; everybody worms his way into the councils and cabinets of ministers, into the secrets of the courts; everybody pumps the ambassadors, disposes of war and peace, and stirs up and misleads public opinion, which is so eager for news and for lies, especially in France, that the more a man deceives it the more he is believed. And this scandalous influence is exerted not only by that crowd of adventurers known as speculators: even the stockbrokers, who are debarred from speculating on their own account, abuse their positions and make deals for their own profit. Often they act against the interests of those they call their clients. If for no other motive but the good of public morality, this abuse must be stopped; and there are many other motives. The rights of freedom cease where abuses begin."
