"Ordinarily, the financial risk in a market, and hence the risk to the economy at large, is limited because the assets traded are finite. There are only so many houses, mortgages, shares of stock, bushels of corn, [bars of silver], or barrels of oil in which to invest.
But a synthetic instrument has no real assets. It is simply a bet on the performance of the assets it references. That means the number of synthetic instruments is limitless, and so is the risk they present to the economy...
Increasingly, synthetics became bets made by people who had no interest in the referenced assets. Synthetics became the chips in a giant casino, one that created no economic growth even when it thrived, and then helped throttle the economy when the casino collapsed."
US Congressman Carl Levin, Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks, April 27, 2010
"The principal inventors, hustlers , borrowers and culprits were the nation's 15-20 largest and best known financial institutions - including the ones that keep making headlines by demanding more bail-out money from Washington and giving huge bonuses. These same institutions got much of the early bail-out money and as of December 2008 they accounted for over half of the bad assets written off.
The reason these needed so much money is that they government had let them merge, speculate, expand and experiment on dimensions beyond all logic.
That is why the complicit politicians and regulators have to talk about $100 billion here and $1 trillion there even while they pretend that it's all under control and that the run-amok financial sector remains sound."
Kevin Phillips, The "Disaster Stage" of U.S. Financialization, April 7, 2009
"I have chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles--which can only destroy and never create--is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace."
John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University, June 10,1963
Stocks ripped higher today, as traders reconsidered the as-of-yet unknown impact of the Omicron variation in the covid virus.
VIX thereby declined, but still remains elevated.
The Dollar was slightly higher.
Gold and silver were under some pressure after rallying overnight.
There will be a Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.
Read this: Wall Street Has Deployed a Dirty Tricks Playbook Against Whistleblowers for Decades.
And who could have seen it coming?
Have a pleasant evening.
