I have no real idea how all of the credit default obligations and credit default swaps and other stuff worked. I still don't.
But when I read this article, by the author of Liar's Poker, I came away with the understanding that the games that Wall Street was playing with mortgage-backed securities were not a house built on sand. Sand is far too stable a terrain; Wall Street was building castles on semi-liquefied dog shit.
The more I read about what was going on with mortgage-backed securities, the more it seems to me that spending by our $700 billion to bail out the banks is the fiscal equivalent of using a garden hose to put out a forest fire. I have a gut feeling that things are going to get worse, a lot worse, before they get better.
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
If you're one of the Covidiots who believe that COVID-19 is "just the flu",
that the 2020 election was stolen, or
especially if you supported the 1/6/21 insurrection,
leave now.
Slava Ukraini!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
1 comment:
House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.
In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.
All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.
(Please don't feed the trolls.)
中國詞不評論，冒抹除的風險。僅英語。
COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.
I heard a clear description of credit default swaps on This American Life a few weeks ago. It blew my mind. All that real wealth that people walked away with was built out of air. Words. Promises. Nothing really backing it, but complex concepts and an arrogance that they wouldn't be caught.
ReplyDeleteIt was bound to come crashing down.
Now the house of credit cards is about to fall. What a mess.