>>A More Realistic View of Capitalism
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>>This article dives further into the causes of the 2008 financial meltdown and reaches a conclusion I had not previously thought about. Question : If the US caused the mess through regulation/deregulation/housing/CDS/etc, why was the meltdown worldwide?
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>>Food for thought.
>>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081680480599148.html
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>Do you expect a realistic view of capitalism from the Wall Street Journal? They are the ones wearing short skirts and shaking pompoms. Even when capitalism leads us to the brink of worldwide economic catastrophe they remain unrepentant.
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>Even so, to say that diminished government oversight did not contribute to the crisis is a bit jarring. We should all know now with crystal clarity that unrestrained capitalism has some toxic potential side effects.

Lots of blame to go around. Capitalists, regulators and legislators all with their fingers in the poison pie. The point I'm taking away is that the global collapse was not "caused" by the US but rather a globally systemic problem influenced by the little known "recourse rule" which appears to have been implemented across a number of countries which experienced a housing boom, bubble and crash. My perception had previously been that the nature of the international financial institutions left them powerful enough that if their US assets collapsed they could take down other countries they were involved with. The more I learn the more this appears to not be the case. I had hints of this previously with the Bank of England and the Finnish solvency crisis, but I still regarded the problem as a US started domino effect. That perception is changing. Unfortunately, while the actual reasons for the crisis may be interesting to me, they will have zero bearing on the forthcoming financial "reform" legislation. Legislators will accept no blame, financial institutions have deployed their lobbyists and everyone in power will get richer, fatter and happier and ride the wave to the next crisis which will arrive shortly.

>For sure we should not continue to allow the institutions that are "too big to fail" to make reckless gambles with too little cash in reserve.

Those "too big to fail" are bigger now than ever.

tick...tick...tick...

Oh well. I'm off to wine country for a 3-day respite. Have a great weekend!