Engpasskonzentrierte Strategie

It would appear that we are all now expected to find work "fun" into our seventies to fulfil our mission as state unsubsidised (and progressively less healthy) consumers - even if there is no work available outside of a supermarket check-out counter - as most people trying to get a new job at 60 might confirm. And as these jobs are now staffed by recent university graduates there's not much of that about. To what end are we working then? The vast majority do it to get into and then out of debt - a microcosm of today's financial market model. The product of Politicians and their economic advisers that have read Ayn Rand (incomparable nincompoop) as non-fiction. And we've recently seen where that leads.

Economists are now spewing forth the should have, could have, would have insights that the whole resultant catastrophe was predictable using the very same indicators that they invented to create it in the first place. The commander of the 18th Panzer Division said, after the battle for Smolensk, that they were winning themselves to death. Free market economics have succeeded in doing just that. Not very surprising then that Goldratt espoused the "weakest link" theory by following on from the German Wolfgang Mewes' "power-oriented management theory " and his later "Engpasskonzentrierte Strategie" - both of which the Wehrmacht could, would, should have borne in mind when they got into but not out of Stalingrad. And that's the Germans and the Euro for you.

There is a geo-strategic phenomenon called the "Eurasian Funnel" that illustrates the inability of a given Western force as it advances East to saturate and control terrain leading eventually to the isolation, exposure and destruction of that force. The same could be said of Economic Globalisation. Unfortunately the cheerleaders for Globalisation didn't follow the first law of military success - Never invade Russia - or, indeed, never march East.

What we have in Goldratt is a Bottleneck theory that ends up as a Funnel - most, if not all, Growth theories do this. That all of this is blindingly obvious doesn't appear to have prevented numerous repeats - the result of over-imagination rather than a limited one. Which brings us to that other financial market chestnut - Risk. Risk is always used to explain why we lost not how we won. It is a weasel word. While banks and bankers thrive and corporations sit on a pile of money a large part of the population is told to expect to spend their old age behind a checkout counter or stacking shelves. Which is the logical conclusion of a finance/retail economy when Economics relies solely on a selfish Dogma.

Work, then, is so that you can buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like. Its the best marketed product in the world, unfortunately for the majority of workers, its not the best paid. Which brings us back to the fundamental Market Economy sine qua non of Supply and Demand. If there is no demand there is no supply so there is no work and thus even less demand- no amount of Goldratt can fix that.

The modern Olympic Games have yet again demonstrated that they are simply an expensive giant monopoly advertising campaign decorated with athletes wearing product. This is best illustrated by the 100m and 200m sprinters wearing wrist watches - what for? These folk shave off their arm and leg hair to go faster. It takes less than 10 or 20 seconds but as they get into their blocks the cameras linger on their arms and hands settling behind the start line. Product gets air time and the athletes get a few more bucks.

It cost NZ an estimated $4 million a medal in London (a rounding error in what it cost London to stage the Games) - a few hip replacements there - so there is very little justification to continue this sporting nonsensical extravaganza - when slashing every other budget. The Ugandans, Kenyans and Ethiopians won a few medals while millions of their fellow Africans starved.

A load of outdated Nation State bollocks that brought us 2 world wars. Move the games to Greece permanently (they really could use the money) and select the athletes on ability not nationality. Also get rid of all this French language waffle - slows the ceremonies down and confuses the Chinese.

Barclays Boson

How appropriate it is that in a week when the particle that lends the impression of mass to elementary particles is claimed to exist there is an announcement about how Barclays, without benefit of a Hadron Collider, added previously unexplained mass to 350 trillion worth of LIBOR transactions. It involved a non-conventional mathematical construct, involving quantifying Bollinger receipts, and contacting collegial counterparties - you can’t pull off this experiment without a counterparty particle. It would appear that these particles avoid being transported, to another universe called jail, because of the complex rules and equations of international banking that result in situations where the normal rules of both finance and the criminal law are suspended. It would seem that these laws are invariably suspended when ultra high level sums exert their gravitational pull on conventional bodies.

However, finding this Boson is needed because if you give all the particles of the Standard Model original mass then the standard model explodes - whoomph - so mass has to be added later from a completely undetectable field - dreamed up by a Mr Higgs - a field as yet unfound. In the manner that bent plods will skew evidence against the accused, after charges are laid, physicists will find the particles required to support their case even if that still can't explain 75% of everything. To maintain funding for a hadron collider they have to come up with something.

Unfortunately, this discovery further closes off the standard model from explaining gravity - unless there is a bit of Higgs Boson left hanging out of the Standard Model. Nor does it help reconcile Quantum Mechanics with Relativity. For that they'll need the scientific equivalent of the Barclays Boson or Graviton. Remember these are folk that rely on a theory that allows the distance between zero and one to be infinite - while not having explained why there is a need for such a thing as infinity or where is zero? This is what is called fiddling the books to suit yourself. There is a Standard Model industry supporting tens of thousands of jobs. Scientists are perfectly capable of sending the "Look Jimmy can you adjust your outcomes to make sure we get this years money or we'll end up like NASA" email.

But what if the Standard Model is the same as LIBOR - an illicit mechanism - a complicity? The Barclays Boson has shown sufficient mass/gravity to suck all money towards it - leading to the conclusion that the Barclays Boson is a main particle ingredient of the Banking Black Hole. All money in the universe is sucked towards this black hole and after reaching the Event Horizon appears to stop moving before disappearing entirely. Which is the situation in the Euro Zone right now.

According to the little guy in the wheelchair with the funny voice there is enough leakage from this Banking Black Hole to fill bankers' pockets  - while everything else in the money universe is stretched to destruction before being compressed to the size of a Bollinger cork.

At this point, a reminder that most of the clever mathematics that went into the financial universe came from the same source as the Standard Model. 

And according to it there is no possible way of getting the Bollinger cork to re-expand - this having happened during the accelerated expansion era between the Big Bang in London and 2007. Unless, of course, we can find another dimension full of money. Seems unlikely unless discovered by the world's central banks in the form of a faster than light Money Particle, not subject to the Standard Model, that finds it's way out of the Banking Black Hole. So given this, it is probably time to hand over the fiscal responsibilities of the ECB, Bank of England, The Fed, World Bank and International Monetary Fund to CERN in the hope that 75% of the money is still out there and can be found. Otherwise we'll need to be invaded by aliens awash in cash.
So what other particles will we find in the Banking Black Hole - well, given the standard banking model, you'd expect to find all the banking Bosons in it. Unless the recent discovery is reversed and the Barclays Boson reverts to being invisible, undetectable and massless. Every attempt will be made to reverse this finding. No counterparty will ever be found to admit to trading in anti-money - the ability to make money where no money exists. 

The banks have turned out to be Hos caught faking a financial orgasm.

Criminal Complicity

Finance, it is claimed by its practitioners, is the equivalent of 4 dimensional Chess and can only be played by the gifted few. It is far too complex for run-of-the-mill human beings to get their minds around. We are the spectators, if not fans, of the thrill of money even if someone else has most, if not all, of it. And, as with all spectators, we are overcharged - in this case not for seats, hotdogs and chips but for homes, mortgages and credit cards. And who knows what else?

I’ve met bankers. More than a few of them, or I’d choose to. They were the ones drinking splits of Champagne when we were drinking pints – you didn’t particularly want them in your round. I’ve met brokers and traders, economists and regulators. I’ve engaged them all in conversation and I have to say that I didn’t find any of them spectacularly smart – especially given their level of hubris. Their choice of idiom made them sound more like real estate agents or used-car salesmen than responsible managers of untold quantities of other people’s money. The term that came to mind to encompass most of them was “lightweight”. I’d long before concluded, from the rich folk I’ve met, that you obviously didn’t need to be a member of Mensa to make a lot of money so I put it down to luck.

More the fool me it turns out. That 4 dimensional financial Chess game was a chimera if not criminal complicity. It may not have started out that way but it certainly seems to have ended up as one. Except, as is now exposed, it isn’t 4 dimensional it is 5. This additional dimension is inhabited by politicians, civil servants and the press - another zone where the term “lightweight” must be applied.

We are expected to accept that the same people can be permitted, without external interference, to investigate a possible criminal case of their own making. How? Why? They can’t be relied upon to prosecute themselves. The Prosecution is already briefed to lead for the Defence. Even though most, if not all of them, were aware of, and thus complicit in, interest rate rigging since at least 2007 they are now rushing to the front of the queue of the innocent claiming false outrage in an equal quantity to total ignorance. Do you expect the pickpocket who stole your wallet to return it to you and face charges of theft? Then why expect these guys to give you your money back.

Maybe the term “criminal heavyweight” is more appropriate.

So what else are they capable of being complicit in - fixing Oil prices, raising Food costs, ramping-up Power charges? How about crime? Where will the trail lead – “follow the money” straight offshore. To the land of NOD – No Oversight Desired. This land can be found instantly by a banker at the mention of the word “Tax”.  Bankers in NOD appear to have assisted in the transfer of $billions worth of laundered money into the USA for the likes of, in one instance among tens of thousands, Russian used–car dealers. The Banks excuse; “our controls could and should have been stronger and more effective”. This sounds a bit less than sufficient given that the bank ignored $60tn worth of wire transfers and account activity and had a backlog of 17,000 account alerts regarding suspicious funds. All of which was known to the appropriate regulators but about which nothing was done.

It’s been a bad week for banking. does anyone care?

Dead Cat

The box is open and the cat is dead. The mathematical theoretical physics behind the "no risk" financial market experiment has ended up killing it. Theoretically the possibility of a loss was insured out of existence.

For example;

• Bank A issued a financial instrument and took out a CDS with Bank B against a possible default or loss.
• Bank B took out another CDS with Bank C to cover the possibility of Bank A's financial instrument going bad.
• Bank A took out another CDS against Bank C if it had to pay Bank B if Bank B payed Bank A 
• Bank A gets both the original loss back from Bank B but also the same again from Bank C.
• Bank C took out yet another CDS with Bank D to remove the risk of having to pay Bank A
• Bank D took out a CDS against Bank A's original financial instrument with Bank A.
• Bank A then used the payment from Bank C to pay Bank D.
• Ad infinitum 

So which Bank loses money? Nobody knows, not even them - but somebody eats the loss. Seems the citizens of any country with a Bank eat it.

The problem we have here is that the same folk that created the problem are trying to solve it. No fresh thinking, no real change in policies - accompanied by the dictum not to let a good crisis go to waste. Using this, or any, crisis to inject more of the same that caused it doesn't, unsurprisingly, appear to work. Never mind, we'll keep going until the life is choked out of it.

Not unexpectedly Obama and Cameron have popped-up demanding a quick fix. Primarily because when, not if, it all goes to rat-shit their banks will topple along with the rest. London and New York are the places that most carcinogenic financial instruments call home.

Let's not forget that, back when all this started in 2007, the estimated value of financial instruments lurking about the world was somewhere between 100 and 300 trillion dollars. Even if only 10% of them go bad - a joke - more like 40% on present estimates - then somebody has to print between 10 and 120 trillion dollars worth of money and give it to the banks.  And these estimates are on the conservative side. As all these instruments are in US dollars that would be bad, bad, bad for them - hence Obama's deep interest in having Europe not fuck the US economy.

Inflation won't solve it. Given the present state of the world's economy the result of a sufficient increase in money supply will be Stagflation - which we are already seeing signs of. Eviscerating trust in money and the printing of 100,000 Dollar, Pound, Euro notes to buy a cup of coffee doesn't sound like one of the better solutions.

So a very, very big turd is about to drop into the fan. This has been constipating since International Accounting Standards, introduced in 2005, prevented companies from provisioning against potential losses before they actually incurred them. Which is, of course, why banks are only now announcing hundreds of billions of losses and looking for some more free cash. Those now looking for the money are the same folk that lobbied for the change to accounting standards in the first place - so they could artificially keep their profits up - even if they knew that a debt was going bad. Better for the share price and the bonuses.

Anyway, I get back to my contention that Globalisation contains the seeds of it's own demise. When there is too little or no domestic industry, manufacturing or production and the banks are making unprecedented piles of money that money has to go somewhere and it, by default, goes into real property as that is the only place left for it to go

Around the turn of the millenium the same lack of alternatives created the "Tech" bubble.

To absorb the fists-full of money spewing out of the banks house prices exploded, builders went on the rampage. When regulations wouldn't permit this path they were changed or new markets created outside regulatory oversight. Not only did the finance industry believe they had found an infallible way to remove risk but they also didn't have to admit that they had lost the money until the instrument was undeniably dead and the loss was taken onto the books. So they had a few years to record record profits and bonuses before they became too big to fail.

The original bail-out money they were given was used to maintain this fiction - now that it has all been spent either they get another round of bail-out or they go down. Any money going to Spain to prop-up it's banks will be used to extend and pretend. When the next 100 billion of property market bad debt pops up, or RBS needs another 40 billion to survive, it'll be another matter entirely.

Beware of gifts bearing Greeks

While the story line goes that it's all about saving the Euro it is really all about saving Banking. The ECB, with or without the assistance of other Central Banks, announces it has printed some fictional money and gives it directly to the banks exposed to Greek debt so they don't go bankrupt and the financial system doesn't collapse in Domino fashion. In order to pretend that this money is real they call it a loan to Greece and tell the Greeks they will have to pay it back with heaps of interest. This allows previous, unrepayable, Greek debt to be written down on the banks' balance sheets and makes them look healthier. It will keep going until the banks don't hold enough Greek debt to take them down along with the financial system when the inevitable happens. Then the Greeks will be allowed to default and leave the Euro. The Central Banks will by then own most of the Greek debt, write it off and invent more money to cover the gaping hole - they are the only ones that can do it. Until this happens the Greeks will continue to have the shit kicked out of them - austerely speaking - without getting so much as a sniff at the money. You'd be on the streets too.

It is all part of the same financial Shell Game. The Central Bank lends other banks invented money at zero interest to buy Government Bonds and accepts bad, invariably worthless, investments as collateral for the loans - a toxic for good paper shuffle.  The banking sector looks to have solid(ish) Government Bonds as investments. The Government is charged less interest on it's Bonds for which there appears to be a market, hopefully resulting in a negative yield. It also works the other way round - the banks issue paper and the government, by one means or circuitous other, buys or provides the money for them, thus injecting liquidity - it has to be this way since the public won't stand for another bank bail-out.  By this sleight of hand the risk is taken out of the private banking sector and made public. The theory being that the present system can survive a near-death experience - until things get better. Extend and pretend at it's best. Unfortunately for this scenario Greece isn't the only problem. There are several more countries on the brink of default. The hope is that the Central Banks can extract the banking sector out of the bad national debt, one debtor country at a time, by printing money in controlled quantities that doesn't result in massive inflation. This is what they mean by a controlled default. An uncontrolled default is one where the banks are still nostril-deep in bad loans when a nation implodes - nothing to do with the manner of the country defaulting. There is only one way a country can default and that is neither controlled nor uncontrolled it is simply "Goodbye!"

The question is how long will the public go on letting this happen before they rebel. Something that politicians, bankers, economists, fuck-wits and the rest of the 1% don't seem to have asked themselves. Not as long as you'd need is the answer, despite assurances that it'll all get better just so long as you do what we say and don't argue. If the Greeks manage to bring down their own government and default before the next round of loans then the game becomes extremely difficult if not cancelled due to bad economic weather. "Pour encourager les autres" is the great fear of Greece defaulting. The Portuguese, Irish, Spanish, Hungarians and even the Italians might see this as a good idea when Greece is still there the next morning. Why spend years paying off debt for money that went directly to banks.

It all gets a bit more emotionally complicated because the Germans are in charge - never overly popular in Greece - so it is a pity they're telling the Greeks what to do and insist on running their country - again. Especially as Germany is the main beneficiary of the Euro - and plays a big part in the reason several countries are now in the financial latrine. Wehrmacht dressed as bankers to most Greeks.

As recent research has shown, the poorer you get the stupider you get the more right wing and religious you become - doesn't bode well. A quick glance at the USA will confirm this. What are the odds that the Greek Army will make a comeback; this time it won't be communism but finance as the excuse the US uses to support a Junta. Spain, Italy and Portugal all have histories of Juntas. Will the real revolution come onto the streets after Armies try to usurp power to save Liberal Capitalist Democracy? An interesting proposition.

Of course an aristocrat fed-up with the nouveaux riche might follow the example of the derided Marquis de Sade. A man capable of not only deviant writings but of both philosophical and political musings that point to him as a materialist atheist, rabid left-winger as well as a sadist. He is rumoured to have played his part in the storming of the Bastille. Will Robespierre ride again?

Return of the Gooh Gooh

The exchange rate is the least of it. Protectionism and all the monetary constraints of economic collapse ensue. But the gist of your argument is that, as with the UK, Sweden and Denmark, you're better-off out of the Euro so why then propose an expensive (unworkable, unaffordable) solution to save it? You're knocking down your own argument. Rather than a single economic zone the Euro is an economic chimera of smoke and mirrors developed from an original treaty designed for the benefit French farmers.

The UK's economic performance is abysmal - so unfair to Sweden and Denmark to compare their performance based solely on a shared ability to flex exchange rates. The only thing that keeps the UK out of an Italianesque tradgedy is, as you say, that it is fortunately not in the Euro -  as a result, they are able to devalue against it - the saving grace along the way is the US Dollar weakness - already ending as American money heads for home in panic. This does not mean that the UK economy is doing any better or that their banks aren't just as vulnerable as the likes of France's when debtor nations try to repay loans with garbage currencies - however they are aligned. By the way, aligned to what?

When you devalue your Mickey Mouse currency against the Euro you can't buy as much in Euros (or anything else) as you used to which then impacts on all those that remain in a real currency - badly if enough countries revalue - so they have to try to hold down the value of their real currency. This can't happen. Result Mickey Mouse inflates.

Usually the country invents a name for it's new Specie (I've always liked "Gooh, Gooh" - as in the Italian Gooh Gooh or the Spanish Gooh Gooh) and defaults on any debt not marked in that currency - basically declare bankruptcy without the discharge. Their economies immediately go into several years of ass tightening and reappear when enough time has passed for everybody to have gotten over being stiffed by them. Of course, up to now, this hasn't included the likes of Italy - new territory indeed.

What we have here is a problem that can't be solved within the Box of present economic theory - why? - because the Box is a mirage with vaporous walls of synthetic debt. A faith based belief economic system with one commandment - growth. The only requirement to be a supplicant is to have "confidence". No lasting solution can be found within the confines of this thinking - just more of the same. Given the all-pervading nature of the present belief system an alternative can not be found in time to prevent an economic equivalent of The Rapture, slash, End of Times.  If the Box is an illusion then there is no "outside the Box" to think in. As Weed used to say to the Flowerpot Men - "Time to go home" - or was that the Wooden-tops?

Germany's biggest advantage is that it's labour costs have remained reasonably flat (they started high in line with their productivity) while the others' shot up by 30% with little or no increase in productivity - who in their right mind drinks Retsina. Italy has gone nowhere in a couple of decades thanks to Berlusconi and a peculiarly Italian version of the free-market. One of the few things that sets Italy apart from the other failing economies was the lack of a property bubble. This is of little consolation.

I advise that in order to come up with a successful solution to the Euro shenanigans you might resort to recreational narcotics, hallucinogenic drugs or go into a trance - an induced coma might be a better long term condition.Which is what the likes of EC Commissioners and The ECB must have been in when they allowed Greece in.

Debt, Banks, Growth - pick any two

Your scenario of a new 2 speed European Economic Union of is wholly dependent on it creating growth - as in economic expansion permitting debt to reduce as a proportion of GDP. Unfortunately a return to assorted devalued national currencies will achieve the opposite as historical sovereign debt will still be measured in Euros and exports from the few remaining Euro countries (especially Germany) will be too expensive and trade will shrink not grow. The knock-on effect on China's exports would be significant - spreading the grief.

You can tackle sovereign debt, bankrupt banks and growth only by picking two of them to tackle at once not all three. There isn't enough money. Especially as regulation permitted European Banks to loan to European Community countries at leverage rates of up to 250:1 under the now miasma of "they couldn't default". Meaning banks are incapable of surviving either a default or a devaluation of currency by any of it's debtor nations (the equivalent of default). So given a choice of two out of the three the logical pick is to tackle sovereign debt and adopt policies for growth not austerity and let the Banks go under. Government then will have to cover the lost customer deposits up to a fixed value and not assume leveraged debt of untold trillions. This could be between 40 to 250 times cheaper than bailing out the banks. The retail divisions of the Banks would be nationalised to keep the branch doors open.

Alternatively, you could just run the printing presses and inflate your way out. This would, of course, destroy the personal wealth of the elite which is why we'll hang-in with the present fallacy as long as possible while they sort out a plan B. Primarily time to move their wealth into something or somewhere less likely to evaporate. Taxpayers will be milked to extend the transfer period of their wealth to a safer haven.  France will not be one of those havens - nor, probably, would it be a first team selection to remain in the new Euro given it's bank's exposure to Italy et al. The Irish, Portuguese and Greeks will sensibly default on their debts immediately they are relegated to the second division of Europe. This leaves you with Spain and Italy as the lead weight around the neck of Europe - sadly no matter what stroke they adopt the rest of Europe is likely to sink with them unless they cut them free.

However you cut it there is no elegant solution. The unpalatable fact is that we're in a Depression - a creeping one. Country by country until the tilting point is reached. Why anyone is surprised by this astounds me. We knew when the Global Financial Crisis struck that hundreds of trillions of debt were out there in the form of CDO and CDS and other assorted toxic, exotic, financial instruments conjured-up by banks looking to increase leverage to historic (lunatic) levels in the pursuit of profit and bonus - recklessly stoked by the Fed's cheap money window. Now we're looking to leverage sovereign wealth to historic levels to bail banks out of their atrocious bets, aka investments. Seeing that countries are vilified for debt at 1.2 to 1 then their ability to leverage at up to 250 to 1 to cover their banks' debt is less than nil. As is the belief that the solution to gargantuan quantities of debt is yet more debt. Pay off your credit card with another credit card.

Globalisation has exacerbated all this as with Lehman Brothers. Everybody cheated, either by borrowing more than they could repay or lending more than they could expect to get back. The choice is clear. Accept that the present financial structure has imploded and needs colonic irrigation or drown in an ocean of debt. Whatever the outcome we're not going to avoid walking around shoulder deep in shit for a long time to come. Although this may be more palatable than the present position of standing on your head in knee deep excrement.

And whose fault is this mess?

When I said hide I actually meant dig.

It appears I was out several trillion dollars on global stock markets' losses in the past week and a bit. And the only way out according to those tasked with our salvation, but abjectly failing to provide it, is more of the same. The fiction of Perpetual Financial Motion - I borrow from you to buy what you sell me - or in the case of countries, borrow from you to pay you back. Wasn't this something like what Global Crossing went to prison for?

I wish to reiterate yet again - it is the Banks. As their stock prices collapse (diminishing their capital reserves below required limits) we find that the financial origins of the GFC never went away - the chasm of debt remains. This inter-bank debt far surpasses the inter-country one which in itself is no small number - European Nations have lent huge amounts of money to each other – Italy has lent Spain $31bn, Germany has lent $238bn to Spain and Italy has borrowed $511bn from France. The UK has loaned Europe $200 billion. Now while countries can print money (leading to devaluation and inflation) the private banks can't. So unless countries do a Bank bail-out round two with fictional money - as in quantitive easing - they'll have to nationalise their failing banks - and that includes the USA. So the greater worry here is not that the odd country defaults but that in doing so the world's banks go crashing down carrying an estimated 100 trillion of assorted toxic financial instruments (CDO, CDS) with them. Quantitatively Ease yourself out of that one.

Anyway, the existing plan - austerity - isn't looking too sharp. The underclasses of London, Birmingham and Liverpool are showing the way. Not only are we seeing a fundamental financial meltdown but also a catastrophic social one. In an ever more unequal society once government threatens to, or actually does, remove the medical, unemployment, education and the rest of the social safety net then the peasants will revolt. So the present circumstances on the streets should come as no great surprise. Spouting tax breaks for business as the route to salvation in a jobless recovery isn't advisable when those presently helping themselves to free sneakers and TV sets - and the odd McDonald's - aren't included in the scope of the plan. Explaining this away as simple criminality is missing the plot. Even the Israelis are on the streets protesting the result of decades of stagnant wages and low taxes for the rich.

So it would seem that the message - "what is good for the rich is good for you" - hasn't caught on quite as well as Conservatives would have wished. When you operate a system that guarantees inequality then it behoves you to toss sufficient scraps to the dispossessed to keep them calm and allow you to keep making money without much inconvenient interference from them. Not doing so is enough to give Capitalism a bad name.

Now, while the British unwashed have turned to riot and robbery the great American unwashed have chosen the path of stupidity. In their ardour for small government they've dismissed the fact that government is the only thing with deep enough pockets that might, possibly, get them out of this mess. According to the Republicans, whose adhesion to Dogma rather than reality is seriously alarming, the solution is to remove government, slash spending, reduce taxes and the system will cure itself. This based on an laissez-faire economic theory that has recently proven unable to run itself never mind fix itself.  Also missing from this Cloud Cuckoo Land is the reaction of the people to perceived economic injustice - unfortunately in the USA this may mean arming yourself to the teeth and heading for the hills with a year's supply of Twinkies.

So we can either pretend that it'll all be right in the end if we just have "confidence" or we can do something about it before we're all living under the Chinese model - for as long as that lasts - and I wouldn't buy any shares in that either. There are none so blind as those that will not to see