GIJoel's Rowdy Rants (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} gijoel666) wrote,@ 2008-11-06 01:25:00 |
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"No Currency Left to Buy the Big Lies":John Cusack on Huffington Post
http://tinyurl.com/65a7o9
He says a few things here that were on my mind to write a few days ago, but I was too tired and I decided to sleep instead. He also happens to say them a lot better than I would have, (which makes me a little jealous, as does the fact he's taller, better looking, drives and still has plenty of his own hair ;-) ), and with clearly a good deal more background reading than I've ever done to inform him.
The passages that are particularly cogent, and representative of my thoughts are these:
"...All that's left is derivative debts -- bets between liars and lies. Trillions of dollars. Turned capitalism into a Ponzi scheme for trading worthless paper. No real value anywhere. No matter how much money Ben Bernanke prints..."
"...So we have laws that allow borrowing money against derivatives -- basically a bet between two people who create nothing without collateral. They leveraged the public financial health on something you wouldn't be allowed to do in Vegas..."
This is roughly similar to how Enron created its own wealth, on paper, and because it created nothing other than wealth, why it could not sustain itself. And when it finally was gutted to collapse by its officers, it sent a loud warning, several years ago!, of what was bound to happen to other companies depending on similar schemes, including, shockingly, banks. But the warning went unheeded, because the government existed only to enable the profiteers, not to regulate and audit them, and now we are where we are today. Cusack's post is basically an outline of the systemic virulence that President Obama will have to try to cure. The question is: how much of what Cusack mentioned is or will Obama be aware of or open to understanding, and how much of it will his brilliant, experienced, successful advisers be willing to inform him of so he can institute the right reforms to navigate a couple hundred million debtors thru a vast sea of massive financial icebergs?
http://tinyurl.com/65a7o9
He says a few things here that were on my mind to write a few days ago, but I was too tired and I decided to sleep instead. He also happens to say them a lot better than I would have, (which makes me a little jealous, as does the fact he's taller, better looking, drives and still has plenty of his own hair ;-) ), and with clearly a good deal more background reading than I've ever done to inform him.
The passages that are particularly cogent, and representative of my thoughts are these:
"...All that's left is derivative debts -- bets between liars and lies. Trillions of dollars. Turned capitalism into a Ponzi scheme for trading worthless paper. No real value anywhere. No matter how much money Ben Bernanke prints..."
"...So we have laws that allow borrowing money against derivatives -- basically a bet between two people who create nothing without collateral. They leveraged the public financial health on something you wouldn't be allowed to do in Vegas..."
This is roughly similar to how Enron created its own wealth, on paper, and because it created nothing other than wealth, why it could not sustain itself. And when it finally was gutted to collapse by its officers, it sent a loud warning, several years ago!, of what was bound to happen to other companies depending on similar schemes, including, shockingly, banks. But the warning went unheeded, because the government existed only to enable the profiteers, not to regulate and audit them, and now we are where we are today. Cusack's post is basically an outline of the systemic virulence that President Obama will have to try to cure. The question is: how much of what Cusack mentioned is or will Obama be aware of or open to understanding, and how much of it will his brilliant, experienced, successful advisers be willing to inform him of so he can institute the right reforms to navigate a couple hundred million debtors thru a vast sea of massive financial icebergs?
