4 ms·

Great read, the cancer of de-regulated financial services still hasn't been addressed, and might not ever if Trump and his richest cabinet in history continue t

Great read, the cancer of de-regulated financial services still hasn't been addressed, and might not ever if Trump and his richest cabinet in history continue to hold power. Wall Street continues to take on obscene amounts of debt from the government for essentially no interest, see Quantitative Easing, so that they can avoid paying even more taxes on their even greater profit. This is also fueling bubbles in other wealthy assets as everything is actually just leveraged debt. The prospects of another financial crisis is just as real as it was 10 years ago and again the lower-middle class will be left to hold the tax bill while the fat cats get fatter.

segmondy 8y ago
Hah, if that was the issue it won't be bad. Wall Street taking debt is no concern really. The real issue is the extraction of wealth from citizens by Wall Street, Wall street builds nothing, absolutely nothing. They claim they provide liquidity, but yet when things look bleak, that liquidity dries up as they run and tighten up on credit. When they going is good, it's all about wealth extraction, they extract it from 401k, pension funds and from every day transaction between average investors trying to make an investment. The entire world of HFT is a joke. They have turned the market into something worse than a casino. In Vegas, you really know your odds, at wall street some of the instruments that are being pedaled shouldn't even be allowed in a video game.
- rustyboy 8y ago
  They're both the same issue, a lack of regulation creates an entire web that makes everything it touches super fragile. When Lehman Brother's tanked they were one of the highest leveraged at 38:1, and current legislation allows 20:1 which many were originally operating at. If you look at any wealth asset, real-estate, wine, art, etc. these are all artificially high making the leverage crisis exponentially worse because when it comes time to shore up accounts these people don't actually have the value their writing in their books. Most of these retirement funds have to prove some basic stress solvency, but they're doing it with leveraged funds and debt. Thus when a downturn happens and it comes time to pay back the middle class we will have to bail them back out. We're paying twice! Student loans almost certainly will be the next bubble, Wall Street already sells these as an asset backed security (see SLABS). At over a trillion in value with the rules written against students when mass defaulting happens the whole system will come down again with individuals having absolutely no protection, and no one willing to fight for them.

segmondy 8y ago

Hah, if that was the issue it won't be bad. Wall Street taking debt is no concern really. The real issue is the extraction of wealth from citizens by Wall Street, Wall street builds nothing, absolutely nothing. They claim they provide liquidity, but yet when things look bleak, that liquidity dries up as they run and tighten up on credit. When they going is good, it's all about wealth extraction, they extract it from 401k, pension funds and from every day transaction between average investors trying to make an investment. The entire world of HFT is a joke. They have turned the market into something worse than a casino. In Vegas, you really know your odds, at wall street some of the instruments that are being pedaled shouldn't even be allowed in a video game.

rustyboy 8y ago
They're both the same issue, a lack of regulation creates an entire web that makes everything it touches super fragile. When Lehman Brother's tanked they were one of the highest leveraged at 38:1, and current legislation allows 20:1 which many were originally operating at. If you look at any wealth asset, real-estate, wine, art, etc. these are all artificially high making the leverage crisis exponentially worse because when it comes time to shore up accounts these people don't actually have the value their writing in their books. Most of these retirement funds have to prove some basic stress solvency, but they're doing it with leveraged funds and debt. Thus when a downturn happens and it comes time to pay back the middle class we will have to bail them back out. We're paying twice! Student loans almost certainly will be the next bubble, Wall Street already sells these as an asset backed security (see SLABS). At over a trillion in value with the rules written against students when mass defaulting happens the whole system will come down again with individuals having absolutely no protection, and no one willing to fight for them.