More like 30 yrs. When a credit bubble bursts, the only possible outcome is catastrophe. Nothing anybody can do about it. It's part of what the system has to go through.
True. Find a chart of Money Supply since the 60's. In '82, Volker lowered rates and pumped the money supply... that was "normal cyclical monetary policy" to bring us out of the '80-'82 recession. However, the money-pump has continued virtually unabated since '82... accelerating to 20% growth in recent years. THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL WE'VE NEEDED 20% MONEY GROWTH IN THE LAST 5 YEARS... Coupled with never ending large Gummint deficits, reckless loans, BS derivative products, over-leverage, lack of loan underwriting, etc, etc... How is it that our elected leaders are not intelligent enough to have seen this building and take action?
Can you imagine having a 700B bank roll in vegas or in any liquid market? Martigale all the way... double down.. split 10's doesn't matter... Lots of small bets creates huge profits... Would you put it all on red or black? thats kind of whats going on here... Gamblers in the hole wanting to take a federal funds for an all in last bet...
I am not so sure we can blame politicians for natural market behaviors. It would be similar as to trying to prevent Nasdaq from reaching 5000 in 2000 with some type of political agenda, when everybody had to own tech. Or trying to prevent it from losing 80% through legislation, as the internet bubble deflated. These type of events eventually happen in all free markets. I would venture to suggest, these behavior will eventually occur even in markets that aren't so 'free'.
We can't prevent the mass greed of stock market bubbles, but debt is another matter. There was good reason before to have borrowers be qualified and have something at risk in the transaction. There's a reason the banks are allowed only so much leverage with their deposits. The keepers of the flame [regulators] were completely negligent.
Agree completely. Programs lowering loan standards to 'help' people who wouldn't otherwise qualify had good intentions but sometimes meaning good can come at a heavy price. But the cause of the financial bubbles we have experienced over the last 11 years in the US did not occur here.
Agreed. But then again, many here on ET have been advocating rate hikes for the past year . . . These are the same people that have very little understanding of how Capital Markets work, or how 33:1 leverage in an OTC under-the-desk marketplace with no oversight and regulation can kill you. Go figure.