How Ayn Rand caused the GFC

[winner69]

Good weekend reading

Love phrases like 'I called the bank (GS) a ''great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity''

Belg loves GS .... as long as it is for trading their share price mate I'll forgive you


How Ayn Rand caused the GFC
http://www.theage.com.au/business/how-ayn-rand-caused-the-gfc-20100424-tknu.html

[winner69]

Even NZ mums and dads get screwed for $90m through Forbar by those connected with this giant vampire squid

Credit Sails

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/3617204/The-funds-the-French-and-the-missing-91m

[Enumerate]

How Ayn Rand caused the GFC
http://www.theage.com.au/business/how-ayn-rand-caused-the-gfc-20100424-tknu.html

This MATT TAIBBI clearly hasn't got the first idea of anything Rand had say. The clearest example of this is the ridicule he heaps upon her without even remotely approaching any of her arguments. Classic fallacy of argumentum ad hominum.

He then latched on a derivative point ... that somehow the Goldman Sachs "masters of the universe" as some how Objectivist heros. This could not be further from the truth. Goldman Sachs are the ultimate collectivists - their stock in trade is government influence. Witness the recent coining of the phrase GS = Government Sachs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19gold.html

The notion that the GFC happened "because markets are free" is absurd on two counts:

1) The existing market is not free. The crisis started in subprime lending which was efficiently driven by the collectivist "Fanny Mae" and "Freddy Mac". These government mandated organisations were setup to make mortgage finance easier for people to obtain who cannot afford it. A plain and simple market distortion for political benefit. They just got too good at doing their jobs ...

2) Subsequent phases of the GFC meltdown were driven by unknown asset values of complex synthetic financial instruments (synthetic CDO's, CLO's etc.) The markets lost sight of the objective value of the underlying financial instruments (lead astray by ratings companies, wall street banks, all down the line). If the markets were free - in an objective sense - there would be no losing sight of the objective value of things (currency - gold standard, loans - corporate assets, mortgages - specific property assets).

If you are in the market for entertaining drivel ... uninformed, abusive, but entertaining in a chaotic way ... then Matt Taibbi serves up a heaping helping of this dross.

If you looking for insight ... look somewhere else.

[Enumerate]

Even NZ mums and dads get screwed for $90m through Forbar by those connected with this giant vampire squid

Credit Sails

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/3617204/The-funds-the-French-and-the-missing-91m

Nice story on Credit Sails. This is precisely the same story that is unraveling in the US. The Credit Sails case was a set of European funds in which synthetic CDO's were issued to underwrite the risks. Cayman Island trusts ... all the whistles and the bells.

If I sold you a building, which later collapsed - killing everyone in it, and it was proven that when I built the building I had scrimped on the structural steel. I would expect that people would be after me, with a vengeance.

What is happening with Credit Sails? Where is the explanation from Forsyth Barr? What about the Trustee? What did these people do when bits started dropping off the structure?

[sharer]

... What did these people do when bits started dropping off the structure?

They spent the mornings banking their commissions mate, & the afternoons playing golf.