I hate to break up a good conspiracy -- but actually the boys running Wall street were really that stupid. Young geeks in the 90's with no concept of risk -- dreamed up securities that their mangers did not understand. Everyone was blinded by the huge fees and it appears that most of the supposedly smart people like Greenspan were book smart but had no common sense. Now, if you want to talk about conspiracy's -- talk about the real ones - like the Lizard people, they are freaking everywhere.
PShep has a good point, The genius mathematicians with nine PhDs, 2 Fields Medals, and several Nobel Prizes forgot that historic data can make a difference and change all the formula constants. But, these are the same people that figured you only need a PhD (Piled Higher and Deeper) and experience is USELESS and UNNECESSARY. The arrogance of ignorance, or, is it, the ignorance of arrogance? Not really sure! Seen it and Experienced IT.
I'm sitting here watching the Party in Davos. Smiling, Laughing, Skiing, Race Car Driving, Women, Wine, and Song, Patting each other on the BACK. "But we're working real HARD to solve these problems"? My gosh, the Masters of the Universe. I'm telling you, they wanted our money, and they've just about got it all, just another 60% to GO!
You can try to laugh and be condescending about these theories, but the fact of the matter is that the current situation could have easily been decided and planed between a few bankers , military, defense industry and some members of government/senate/congress. Nothing really hard to believe about this , we are not talking about ridiculous lizard men and women here , just a few scary ideologues with power is all you need to get this thing going... I am still not convinced, we will probably never know anyway ... but I would not be surprised
Even if it wasn't "planned", why is it that the US government ALWAYS fucks things up? It can't always be blamed on incompetence. Can it? Incompetence is the cop-out. It's more believable that we have a government that doesn't know what they're doing rather than something what was orchestrated. They consistently enact policies that are not in the best interest of the common man. And they do it over and over and over and over again. Is this because they don't know what they're doing? More likely, they've been brainwashed into thinking they're doing the right thing. They've been brainwashed at the university level and all through their career. It seems as though every major policy has two purposes. There's the purpose that politicians try to sell us on, which I believe the politicians actually believe in as well. Then, there's another more sinister purpose that we never know or hear about. There are too many things that don't make much sense. Why is the Patriot Act considered patriotic? Why is the Federal Reserve not a reserve? I guess it's just that stupid, silly government again.
Great response. As we all know here, when it comes to profit people stop thinking rationally and the credit expansion was all about profit. Everyone wished so much that the fantasy was real that it took a big crash for the world to wake up. Was it all engineered? Is this one giant wealth transfer? I don't know but what I can tell you is that it was the stupidity and greed of the Wall street that made it happen.
I read an investor quarterly report today for Friedberg (macro fund up 50% in 2008) and in they explained that the performance of their offshore fund versus the onshore- a big difference in performance because the offshore fund could go short but the onshore fund could not... this was when the US and other countries banned shorting financials.. The rich get richer, and the government yet again finds a way to facilitate them with their absurd policies...
Lots of experience, research, and reading the right books will unfold the TRUTH. Just remember, don't believe everything you read and/or hear. But remember the driving MOTIVES (GREED/POWER, and as Veblen says, LEISURE). But you've got to know what are the right materials. It all has to do with indepth Historic research and psychology. The DOTS will and do connect. They can't hide it all. You may never be able to sell it, but in your heart, you'll know, until you read and/or learn something else. The only concession you have, is that you didn't sell you soul to them, as long as you know what exactly they were asking for. Knowledge generally exposes BS.