Frankenstein Finance/timebomb That Nobody Can Defuse;

[eric pebble]

Frankenstein Finance/timebomb that nobody can defuse;

Excellent article by Robert Harris - [was also published in The Week magazine under title "The Financial Timebomb that Nobody can Defuse".]

-----------------------

"A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of capitalism. A vast and highly unstable mixture of debt — trillions of dollars of sovereign, corporate and private borrowing accumulated over decades — is strapped to the advanced Western economies like a suicide bomber’s gelignite vest.

The task facing our politicians is somehow to defuse this bomb without inadvertently triggering the sequence of defaults and bankruptcies that would set it off. No wonder they walk around the problem scratching their heads, prodding it gingerly here and there. The horrible truth is dawning that the problem may well not be technically solvable.

For the first time in my life — I am 54 — I get the sense of what it must have been like to have lived in my grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generation: in 1913, say, or 1937. One feels a great smash coming ever closer, almost in slow-motion, and yet there seems to be nothing that can be done to avoid it.

...//....

As the current sense of sleepwalking towards calamity continues, my worry therefore is not so much the obviously imminent Greek default, or even the strains in the Eurozone, or the U.S. budget deficit, or the long-term intentions of the Chinese.

It is that the financial system itself has somehow slipped all human control — that it has become the preserve of a profoundly anti-democratic, super-rich elite, and that it girdles the planet like some alien entity from an H. G. Wells novel."

Read all here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2043943/How-supercomputers-preying-human-fear-taking-worlds-stock-markets.html#ixzz1anVxVSkQ

[tinker]

Wakey wakey.

[juvenal]

Robert Harris has a new book out called The Fear Index. Richard Bacon interviewed him on 5Live and it was fascinating. Harris been researching with the hedge fund brigade. One guy he interviewed had made 750 million dollars in twenty four housrs.

[eric pebble]

Robert Harris has a new book out called The Fear Index. Richard Bacon interviewed him on 5Live and it was fascinating. Harris been researching with the hedge fund brigade. One guy he interviewed had made 750 million dollars in twenty four housrs.

I know this may seem very naive-- but - this guy who made 750million in 24 hrs -- was it TO THE DETRIMENT of any country/pension fund/unsuspecting individuals/taxpayers?

I really want to know the answer for this.

[wonderpup]

A vast and highly unstable mixture of debt — trillions of dollars of sovereign, corporate and private borrowing accumulated over decades — is strapped to the advanced Western economies like a suicide bomber’s gelignite vest.

So the solution to the debt bomb is to defuse it via default- but that would require those in power to act in the best interests of their populations rather than in the best interests of the debt holders- so instead they will drag us all down to oblivion and chaos in vain attempt to breath life into a mountain of IOU's that should never have been written in the first place.

[pyewackitt]

Frankenstein Finance/timebomb that nobody can defuse;

Excellent article by Robert Harris - [was also published in The Week magazine under title "The Financial Timebomb that Nobody can Defuse".]

-----------------------

"A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of capitalism. A vast and highly unstable mixture of debt — trillions of dollars of sovereign, corporate and private borrowing accumulated over decades — is strapped to the advanced Western economies like a suicide bomber’s gelignite vest.

This is wrong! This is not capitalism!

This is already extended western governments performing public funded state intervention taking on private debt and liabilities. If this was capitalism the markets would have crashed, the banks allowed to collapse and their assets sold off - not underwritten by the public.

[wonderpup]

I know this may seem very naive-- but - this guy who made 750million in 24 hrs -- was it TO THE DETRIMENT of any country/pension fund/unsuspecting individuals/taxpayers?

I really want to know the answer for this.

The question is where did this 'wealth' come from- how could any investment possibly mature and generate a 705 million profit in 24 hours?

The only way such vast sums can be generated is by mating money with money- so all that is happening here is that more claims on the real wealth of the world are being manufactured but no more real world wealth is being created.

Which leads us to where we are now- a world awash with claims on our societies wealth that far exceed our ability to meet them- but these claims now function as a black hole sucking the life out the real economy as those holding the debt use every shred of their waning power to try to extract their piece of the now shrinking pie.

So while each one of these 'deals' might be demonstrably harmless in the immediate sense- no obvious victim can be found, the overall effect is like pollution- an incremental poisoning of our societies ability to function- a build up of 'toxic debts' that leave our real economy gasping for air and will eventually kill it unless we make the debt merchants eat that toxic debt themselves, rather than absorbing it onto our economy.

[interestrateripoff]

Robert Harris has a new book out called The Fear Index. Richard Bacon interviewed him on 5Live and it was fascinating. Harris been researching with the hedge fund brigade. One guy he interviewed had made 750 million dollars in twenty four housrs.

Did he also brag about the amounts lost in 24hrs?

However on the point of the article this isn't a European timebomb it's a global timebomb, no one is immune.

[Georgia O'Keeffe]

Did he also brag about the amounts lost in 24hrs?

However on the point of the article this isn't a European timebomb it's a global timebomb, no one is immune.

thats a bit of an over dramatization, theres probably at least a few tribes in the amazon that really dont give a sht

Edited October 15, 2011 by Tamara De Lempicka

[Redcellar]

The question is where did this 'wealth' come from- how could any investment possibly mature and generate a 705 million profit in 24 hours?

The only way such vast sums can be generated is by mating money with money- so all that is happening here is that more claims on the real wealth of the world are being manufactured but no more real world wealth is being created.

Which leads us to where we are now- a world awash with claims on our societies wealth that far exceed our ability to meet them- but these claims now function as a black hole sucking the life out the real economy as those holding the debt use every shred of their waning power to try to extract their piece of the now shrinking pie.

So while each one of these 'deals' might be demonstrably harmless in the immediate sense- no obvious victim can be found, the overall effect is like pollution- an incremental poisoning of our societies ability to function- a build up of 'toxic debts' that leave our real economy gasping for air and will eventually kill it unless we make the debt merchants eat that toxic debt themselves, rather than absorbing it onto our economy.

The money comes from each of us. As people here have said before it's simply transfer of wealth. 7 billion people on the planet,. all trickling their money to a few large corporations / individuals.

So long as they kept the rate slow enough there was no problem as we didn't notice nor care. Obviously this hasn't been the case and recently everyone felt they were deserving of the free trickle of money. Housing being a prime example. So the trickly became a stream and then a river. Just can't work.

[Giordano Bruno]

I know this may seem very naive-- but - this guy who made 750million in 24 hrs -- was it TO THE DETRIMENT of any country/pension fund/unsuspecting individuals/taxpayers?

I really want to know the answer for this.

If you 'make' money without earning it by providing some good or service of commensurate value then someone somewhere is losing that money you are 'making'.

[leicestersq]

I know this may seem very naive-- but - this guy who made 750million in 24 hrs -- was it TO THE DETRIMENT of any country/pension fund/unsuspecting individuals/taxpayers?

I really want to know the answer for this.

Eric,

He didn't create anything of value, so that gain came from others, those on the other side of the trade. It could well be the ones you suggest.

[Redcellar]

Eric,

He didn't create anything of value, so that gain came from others, those on the other side of the trade. It could well be the ones you suggest.

You don't always need to create anything of value. Simply giving up your time has significant value. Basically we are all selling off some of the time on our lives. Tha's what something is worth.

[nmarks]

Did he also brag about the amounts lost in 24hrs?

However on the point of the article this isn't a European timebomb it's a global timebomb, no one is immune.

Agreed. I've just been offered a job in Hong Kong but the distance from Europe offers little comfort.

[Redcellar]

Agreed. I've just been offered a job in Hong Kong but the distance from Europe offers little comfort.

Congratulations. It's great to have the offer whether you take it or not.

[nmarks]

I'm sure everybody here is familiar with the game of Monopoly. In that game players compete to monopolise the assets and ruin competitors. Once that happens the winner is declared and the game is reset. That is precisely what has happened in actuality.

In Monopoly players hand back the tokens, titles and money in order for the game to restart. This is what must happen peacefully else it may be done forcibly by way of revolution.

. . . or Global Thermonuclear Warfare, Professor Falken.

Edited October 15, 2011 by nmarks

[Redcellar]

I'm sure everybody here is familiar with the game of Monopoly. In that game players compete to monopolise the assets and ruin competitors. Once that happens the winner is declared and the game is reset. That is precisely what has happened in actuality.

In Monopoly players hand back the tokens, titles and money in order for the game to restart. This is what must happen peacefully else it may be done forcibly by way of revolution.

. . . or Global Thermonuclear Warfare, Professor Falken.

In monopoly people often go to jail and do not pass go and do not collect $50. In real life they get a peerage.

[nmarks]

Congratulations. It's great to have the offer whether you take it or not.

Thanks. You might know about the crooks I have pursuing across the world. I gave up my job Singapore in May to pursue them, taking flights here there and everywhere. After two months I'd run of money and I've been out of work since, so this Hong Kong job comes as a major relief. I've been learning C# and ASP.net aswell as assisting Interpol.

Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R682CHQDxnU&feature=feedwll&list=WL

Edited October 15, 2011 by nmarks

[leicestersq]

You don't always need to create anything of value. Simply giving up your time has significant value. Basically we are all selling off some of the time on our lives. Tha's what something is worth.

Yes, his gain could mean some people give time to him rather than himself.

[R K]

Yes it is.

* Debt restructuring/creditor writeoff/forgiveness

* Investment/domestic demand by the surplus countries

* Rebalancing within the EZ by either Germany taking a sabbatical or the piggies leaving

It's not that there are no solutions, it's that Germany has its fingers in its ears and wishes they'd go away.

[papag]

Its all down to the privately owned Bank of England

[Injin]

Yes it is.

* Debt restructuring/creditor writeoff/forgiveness

* Investment/domestic demand by the surplus countries

* Rebalancing within the EZ by either Germany taking a sabbatical or the piggies leaving

It's not that there are no solutions, it's that Germany has its fingers in its ears and wishes they'd go away.

That's going to turn out to be a mistake for them, because ignoring for an age then having to completely reverse your position leaves you open to being shoved a long, long way from where you would like to be.

But well, talking things through is for equals.....

[wonderpup]

This is wrong! This is not capitalism!

This is already extended western governments performing public funded state intervention taking on private debt and liabilities. If this was capitalism the markets would have crashed, the banks allowed to collapse and their assets sold off - not underwritten by the public.

I agree- but a funny thing happened on the way to the bailouts- the same people who had spent thirty years preaching endlessly about the virtues of the capitalist system- the bankers, the think tanks, the foundations, the mindless sweeping herds of bovine 'economists' all of the motley crew of free market apologists said and did nothing.

Instead of outrage at the gross state interference in the free market represented by the bailouts the entire neo liberal freak show just stuck their collective hands out for a Government bail out- and on that day whatever shreds of credibility they had left were stripped away to reveal the naked greed that was and is the core of their bankrupt ideology.

[Injin]

I agree- but a funny thing happened on the way to the bailouts- the same people who had spent thirty years preaching endlessly about the virtues of the capitalist system- the bankers, the think tanks, the foundations, the mindless sweeping herds of bovine 'economists' all of the motley crew of free market apologists said and did nothing.

Instead of outrage at the gross state interference in the free market represented by the bailouts the entire neo liberal freak show just stuck their collective hands out for a Government bail out- and on that day whatever shreds of credibility they had left were stripped away to reveal the naked greed that was and is the core of their bankrupt ideology.

I'm glad you now agree that a free market (with no exceptions) is the answer.

Good man.

[24gray24]

The whole premise of the article is silly: why on earth would the elite want to defuse it, when they spent so much time and trouble getting everyone into permanent debt?

They've got the gold, they've got the debt slaves. That's what they wanted.

Now their only concern is to make sure we know our place. Downton Abbey anyone?