In a "60 Minutes" segment last night, Morley Safer interviewed a number of "pigeons" -- what con artists call their victims -- of prominent scams. Among them were victims of Madoff's Ponzi scheme and Pigeon King International, a multi-million dollar Canadian pigeon-farming scam.
But derivatives expert and HuffPost bloggerJanet Tavaokli told "60 Minutes" that these frauds were peanuts compared to the financial meltdown. The 2008 crisis, she said, was "a massive Ponzi scheme" in which traders were "buying each other's products to artificially keep the prices up so that the bubble didn't collapse."
"It's the biggest crime against the American economy in our lifetimes -- in fact, ever."
Watch the full segment below (Tavakoli appears at the 9:40 mark):
The derivative market has been referred to as the "ticking time bomb" by some financial scholars. It is apparently a portion of the financial sector without substantial regulation. This is probably because these paper assets are so complicated and intertwined all but a handful of financiers fully understand their complexities.
ReplyDeleteOne fact is surely known. The approximate valuation of these paper assets is estimated at between 600 and 800 trillion dollars. Your 401K, insurance company, public pensions, local school district, and a host of other financial entities have all invested our money in these contractual agreements. They are in danger of default.
Divest yourself of paper assets for the time being. Now is the time to own tangible assets, actual objects that you believe may have value in the harder times that surely lie ahead.
In the near future your allies, family members, and honor will hold their value more assuredly than all the paper promises ever printed.
Best wishes my brothers.
The Will of Landru with you also brother.
ReplyDeletePeople have been talking about bloodshed. This is so serious. I do think that there will be the riots and bloodshed that Celente talks about. And it will be Americans in DC, taking things into their own hands. A coup! French Revolution. People will be getting hurt.
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