Comments on: Financial Reformation needed

By: RichGB

RichGB — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:17:52 +0000

It is tempting to equate the granting of ever higher credit limits with the death-bed bribe that staves off purgatory.
Indeed, all of a sudden, we find ourselves in purgatory, and the credit limits can not go any higher.
Now, is this the fault of the Church (financial institutions) or the God-fearing wretch, e.g. Westerner with a 'maxed out' credit card?
I believe a debt (a personal one) is always to be honoured, but wonder if the duty of the people is what allows the shenanigans of the people with the 'funny money' to continue.

By: Golem XIV - Thoughts

Golem XIV - Thoughts — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:04:23 +0000

Yes, I too hate that use of the word 'market' as if it were one thing to all people. The term enoucrages a spurious respect even fondness for an abstraction. It;s like corporatoins being accorded rights as if they were people. Wrong in every way.

By: IanG

IanG — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:44:47 +0000

Yep, this is the way it is. One of the interesting ideas from the book 'Fooled by randomness' is the way statically out of a group of fund managers a certain number will always be making the right bets. They themselves think they have been clever but it was simply the throw of the dice that got them where they are. It is like looking at millionaires and seeking out their 'habits' assuming that if you repeat those you too can be rich! Of course they never put the spotlight on all those who followed the same path but failed. All we know about are the successes, there are many more failures than successes out there who simply get forgotten.

Looking to the past to predict the future has no chance of success because of the way events are unexpected. You are also dealing with, not an immutable physical law like gravity, but human nature, herd instinct, greed and panic. I do wish the MSM would not refer to 'the market' as if it was some benign mechanism totally divorced from humans.