The style is interesting but the content initially makes me wonder just how much she hates the US? :O thought that kind of thinking wasn't very popular at the moment :laugh
+2 on freedom of speech and electing someone better able to play the international political game. I couldn't care less what color the prez is. BO's legal and economic policies will have extraordinarily bad long term effects (and the short term isn't likely to be great either).
Holy crap that looks like a old friend's mother ... :eek
I just can't believe that America, home of the KKK etc etc voted in a black president with an Arab sounding name ... maybe the ******'s really are in the minority now?
Congress allowing the willy nilly issuance of credit default swaps with no oversight whatsoever is the root cause of the economic mess that engulfs the world. CDS basically amount to side bets on the direction of an asset. The buyer of the CDS need not have any interest in the asset. There was no oversight, so financial firms stupidly sold CDS without the resources to back them up and seemingly no concern that they would ever have to pay on them. The payment of the CDS gone bad is what bankrupted the financial firms on Wall St. We are talking 100 year old legendary firms that were pillars of the world finanical realm, undone by fast money stupid thinking in a few short years.
Of course the loss of Bear Stearns, etc is the comparatively minor issue. It is the damage to the credit market that keeps the wheels of business turning that is the problem. Governments around the world are printing and "injecting" money, stimulating, everything they can. The guys on the message boards I frequent for my short investments call them the "Plunge Protection Team" or PPT for short. They root against their efforts in hopes that the markets tank more and their short investments rise sharply in value. China just dumped 585 billion in stimulus money on their economy - this from a country that until recently worried about runaway growth and inflation. It boggles the mind really. It also worries me if the Dow drops below it's 7,800 now tested twice "bottom out point" and all hell breaks loose. If that happens, well shit man, look out below. Here comes Patch11's Dow 6,000 nightmare.
Believe it or not, we have been down this road before, if on a far less grand scale. The stock market crash in 1907 was caused by similar, if less sophisticated instruments sold at "Bucket Shops". The sale of this type of instrument had been banned until 2000. The ban on this sort of thing was lifted as part of the deregulation push championed by Greenspan. Complete unfettered free market capitalism with no regulation whatsoever sounds appealing, but it leads to disaster. Recent events certainly highlight that. There has to be a watchdog and there has to be transparency. CDS in and of themselves are not weapons of mass financial destruction. Unregulated peddling of them, on the other hand, obviously was not such a good thing. The pendulum swings. Hopefully it does not swing too far, but erring on the side of caution vs. letting the suits rape the financial hen house would be my preference going forward.
Less and less in the way of tangible product is manufactured in America. Seems we have a knack for pushing paper and creatively financing ourselves into a world financial crisis though. Yes, there is plenty of blame to go around but if fault for the current economic state of affairs is honestly assessed, it lands squarely on Wall St. It is all terribly embarrassing really. WTF has happened to my country? I simply can't accept that make a killing today who gives a rat's ass about tomorrow and who cares who gets screwed shark tank capitalism thinking that led to this mess is what America is about.
Maybe we can see some art on that - guys in expensive suits with money coming out their asses peddling weapons of mass financial destruction, making a killing then losing it all, while the city burns around them. A few years ago, I would have hated what your friend is saying with her art and I probably would have had unkind words for her. Now I see where she is coming from. It makes me angry and sad :banghead
Trust an Aussie to lower the tone ....... :coocoo :laugh :laugh
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