JSArbitrage

Fitch Report: Financial Companies Hold 99.7% of All Derivative Contracts

That's the problem, isn't it? It's like saying systemic risk doesn't exist unless the system fails. It's a circular statement.

Every major financial institution did go bust ... they were put on Treasury/Fed life support. If the Treasury/Fed didn't intervene, there wouldn't be a major Wall Street firm left to debate whether that "risk" could "materialize."

On Jul 29 09:09 AM Angry Banker wrote:

> You're right, but that risk only materializes if everybody goes bust.

If Goldman Rules the World, Why Not Buy Shares?

There are a few reasons:

(1) Who really understands exactly how Goldman makes money? Some people are comfortable investing in black-boxes and some people aren't.

(2) Whether Goldman succeed in what could be called the most significant case study on regulatory capture in American history is moot if Goldman overpays their employees leaving equity holders with little earnings of their own. In other words, even if the most powerful company in the world makes X, if it pays out (X*.999...) to its employees, investing in the common makes little sense.

'Surgical' Bankruptcy for Chrysler

Interesting. I thought we initially provided taxpayer financing because bankruptcy would cause a meltdown in the overall economy? I'm glad we prevented such a huge disaster instead of simply letting Chrysler go into bankruptcy earlier. It's not like we lost money because of that clutch decision.

/sarcasm