A billionaire explains the middle class

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From a theoretical perspective, this is indeed how it was "S'POZED" to work."

The one small detail that turned what may well have been a useful addition to the family of investments, was that these novel instruments were rated AAA on non-existant historical experience and opaque/arcane data [at best, as much of the information appears to have been deliberatly misleading] to the largely unqualified raters at the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs).

IMNSHO it is unreasonable to expect the average, or indeed professional, investor to conduct in-depth due dillagance on every investment they make, to verify/validate the rating organization valuations

Indeed, and the so called synthetic ETF funds, which track but do not own the actual stocks or other assets such as FX, may well prove to be a new problem as there are no underlying assets.

The investors were not interested in who was on the other end of the loan contract. As far as the investors were concerned, as long as there was real property backing the loan then anybody with a pulse could be given the loan.

The way capitalism is supposed to work is the investor does the work making investments. That is the job he is being paid to do. Like anyone else if he doesn't do his job, he doesn't make money. The govt doesn't protect other jobs like you want the govt to protect investors.

If the govt is to make the world safe for investors no matter how incompetent they are, that would be crony capitalism.

The govt already provides an overabundance of safe places to park money. Every new investment that you make safe will produce just more of the same lower yield investments. That is not going to stop people from looking elsewhere for high risk high yield investments. The govt would have to devise a way to outlaw risk taking to keep investors in only safe investments.

And most understand a WHOLE lot more now!!!

An investment is a vehicle with underlying value that will produce a return under foreseeable conditions AND has some intrinsic value. May not be a physical asset, but has intrinsic value...like the name and market base of Coca-Cola. There is risk.

Gambling is taking a risk that you'll loose it all in search of BIG gains. The house always wins.

The problem happens when Gambling is dressed up as an investment vehicle to lure unsuspecting "investors" and raking in a commission. The broker wins. Sometimes the investor wins...sometimes. People are lured to put their money in places that are totally inappropriate for their life objectives.

Anything that rakes in money without also producing something or transporting something or facilitating something is not an investment. The futures market was a means to stabilize farming. What is it now? Sell a contract on something you don't have to somebody who couldn't take delivery. "Hey dad, there's an oil tanker in the front yard."

Ideally investing wouldnt be a "job". You would make your money by working, producing things and providing services and then you would put that money to work helping others do the same. You would be paid interest proportional to the risk.

Today, too many people make money just by "moving money" - speculating and not producing.

I think that you are confusing "needs" and wants. Needs are food, clothing, lodging and medical care. And the Air force feed, clothed, and housed me and supplied free medical care when necessary, and demanded that I perform "work" in compensation.

Which is, amazingly, just how communism worked in the so called "Eastern Block".

But the publicly listed companies file 10-K report that are public information and they are required to make share holders aware of significant plans for the company.

That is true, but the 10k report has a lot of qualifying statements.

Dan

Communism is how armies have always worked. They can because they are composed of healthy young men and are not complete self-supporting societies. Their ability to bring along dependents has always been limited in peacetime and impractical in war zones.

The Army made the difference between Wants and Needs very clear. Initially we didn't have any more than we could carry, like primitive nomads but without the animals or women to bear the burdens.

-jsw

If you were like many in the military, you did as little as possible to to get those needs supplied.

Which is also much like the Eastern Block version communism:

"They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work."

David

My situation was unusual, the on-call repairman for a computer network. I could only be assigned extra duties that I could drop on a moment's notice to hop on a helicopter, like post photographer and USO and chaplain's assistant, or helping in the motor pool. I was the obvious choice for odd assignments like meaningless special classes to show we were taking action against problems like drug abuse, and meet-the-locals visits around the area. I did enjoy being the token enlisted man at a banquet the officers held at Heidelberg Castle. I was almost the only enlisted GI who could be trusted to operate independently and not cause trouble out alone among the Germans.

-jsw

When were you there? My brother was a JAG captain who said he spent most of his time defending enlisted men for drug abuse or fighting with the locals. That was in the mid '70's.

times! The exploded gunpowder donjon was impressive.

David

An example of this in action at the most basic level.

motor-vehicle equity lines of credit or title pawns, are having ruinous financial consequences, causing owners to

according to the Times. The Gazette article cited data from the Center for Responsible Lending, in Durham, North Carolina, that showed one in six of the loans ends in repossession of the vehicle.

I left in early 1973.

The drug situation I saw in Germany then was strange. It was mostly "ethnic", and severely aggravated by ambitious congressional staffers etc who tried to inflate any criminal accusation into a racial incident. The first response I saw was to dump enforcement onto black NCOs, then to simply ignore the problem and relax discipline. Barracks inspections stopped so the officers wouldn't have to see but ignore the punchbowls full of hash.

The effect of uncontrolled drug use was surprisingly small. It lost its cachet of rebellion and fell back to the habitual users who hadn't been contributing anything anyway, so the usual 10-20% who make everything run smoothly just continued to, and life proceeded as before without major problems other than unmourned drug-dealer murders. We knew not to assign any tasks to a guy who carried his heroin works in his shirt pocket.

After they introduced beer vending machines, I noticed that the milk machines always ran out first.

The "Drug Education" class I was stuckee'd to attend was part of a grad student's thesis project on the effects of various substances on blood circulation, with films of red cells moving (or not) in the transparent capillaries of frog feet. Somehow he had sold the Army on its value and gotten them to fund his European vacation trip.

He was very surprised to find a GI who knew chemistry better than he did among the class of sleepy people who could be spared to attend. He happened to be holding it next to an old airstrip we often used so I was as available for a mission there as anywhere else.

-jsw

Gee, Larry normally is the happy drunk and clueless comedian. I finally see he gets all hostile and Lashes out just because somebody mentions what the ir lady friend says.

(he must have had a mighty rotten holiday season this time around)

"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

We need a public institution kids will be forced to attend that teaches them to be responsible adults.

That would be considered child abuse.

Best Regards Tom.

Not if you wait untill they are 18.