‘Dream recession’ comment sparks row
Alessio Rastani’s frank admission left the anchors stunned, as he claimed the eurozone market would crash and the economic problems were “like a cancer”.
But claims later surfaced that the interviewee was a hoaxer who managed to dupe the news channel.
Rastani’s warned viewers not to sit around waiting for the crisis to blow over.
“It’s not a time right now for wishful thinking that the government is going to sort things out. Governments don’t rule the world — Goldman Sachs rules the world,” he said.
“For most traders we don’t really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it.
“Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession.”
Questions over Rastani’s credibility flooded the net yesterday with many suggesting the independent stock market trader is in fact one of the “Yes Men”, a prankster group.
Rastani denied the allegation afterward and the BBC said it had conducted a background search on the interviewee and were satisfied with his credentials.
The BBC infamously fell victim to a hoaxer before — when a “representative of Dow Chemical” announced the firm would fully compensate all those injured in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
A BBC spokesman said: “We’ve carried out detailed investigations and can’t find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax. He is an independent market trader and one of a range of voices we’ve had on air to talk about the recession.”
In 2006 a man who was mistakenly interviewed on a BBC news programme as an expert thought it was part of the interview process for a job he was seeking.
Red-faced programmers with the BBC apologised after putting a black mystery man on the air in a live interview, mistaking him for a white computer expert who was waiting at the reception desk.
