Quote: (07-13-2012 12:10 AM)kosko Wrote:
For the numbers people here please try to explain to me how it makes any sense that more credit exists than global GDP?
In my mind there should not be any more collateral then double down what the earth can produce in wealth.
GDP is annual production. Total wealth is much higher. Just like you may make $100k a year, but you might have $500k in assets.
It's a stretch to call it an $800 Billion swindle. They didn't steal that much, I think that was the amount of money involved. I have read that it is in fact the biggest financial scandal ever though.
Unlike the other scandals, I've actually seen legit criticism from the finance press on this one, from Financial Times and The Economist. It seems like everything else up until now, they've just shrugged off the criticism as 'populism' and 'demogoguery.' They'd call scandals ambiguous terms like 'murky' and 'controversial.'
Most of the mainstream press is incredibly gullible. They will eat up everything industry tells them. And industrial titans are consummate pros at spitting lies that benefit them. Like "we need to import Indians to do tech jobs because no one else will do them [for half the US market rate and without benefits. And that limited visa confers a sort of slave status. ]." Or, "we'd love to hire, but the workforce just doesn't have the skills we need." I'm not sure journalists are bought off per se. They may just be fucking stupid, and go weak at the knees for rich men in suits.
I find alternative newspapers and magazines to be better in that respect, eg LA Weekly vs. The LA Times. Occasionally mainstream sources will have legit investigative journalism, but otherwise they just end up unwitting corporate shills. They just have no clue that most everyone they talk to in business is trying to bullshit them six ways from Sunday. If people want to bullshit, that's cool, but don't be a fool enough to take their explanations at face value and print them without any rebuttal.