A quick thought. Deregulation helped to build the hedge funds. I don't know exactly what I'm talking about re financial issues, but I have the impression that the hedge funds took over from the investment banks as the great lakes of finance and investment capital because they could do their highly-leveraged voodoo behind the hedge. Unscrutinized, unaccountable. Well now that is about to change.
But I wonder how many of the engines of neoconservatism made their money in this manner. Of course I mean Bruce Kovner, a very private man who has erected high berms around portions of his beautiful Dutchess estate either for drainage purposes or to keep out the nosy Phil Weisses of the world. He has Caxton, a hedge fund, and is the chairman of Juilliard and the American Enterprise Institute. He is said to have had political ambition till there was an SEC investigation of some financial brilliance he was engaged in years ago. But I don't mean to single Kovner out. Michael Steinhardt is a hedge funder, I think Roger Hertog is too, the backers of the New Republic. I'm sure there are others.
I'm speculating (!) that the secrecy that invested the hedge funds carried over to the neoconservative political ideology these men funded. And so the Bill Kristols and David Frums of the world did not feel that they owed personal transparency to the world. I always compare Kristol's father's and uncle's openness about their Jewishness in their politics to the subterfuge that Kristol engages in. In that link he seems paranoid about such exposure. Frum has radiated the same vibe at times. Everyone says, well that's Straussian. Maybe it's hedgeian.
This is raising idiocy to a new level. This is a world wide situation that is complicated in the extreme. With more than enough blame to go around. At ground zero I think you find Allen Greenspan and the gse's, Financial bubbles are endemic throughout history, This is just another one. Credit swaps, and otc derivatives could have and were routed through London and Hong Kong just as easily as New York . One final thing. AIG was essentially built by Hank Greenburg. He literally had his name on the door. But when Elliot Spitzer hounded him out, that's when that company fell apart
I wondered yesterday, if all the bonuses planned for the staff, a huge share of the US help funds it seems, is really hush-money.
Trust your instincts, Mr. Weiss.
Deregulation always allows the people with capital to access more credit and buy things during the raising market. They are followed by thoughtless investors. That is how every single bubble works. And not only bubbles. The crisis/change is always a time when people with liquid capital make killing buying assets cheaply. These are bottom feeders who sell at thee beginning of the crisis and buy at the nadir. If you haven't (yet) inherited your capital, than working in financial institutions works a treat: The trick is to create either activity (mergers/acquisitions/de-mergers) or new investment instruments (derivatives/hedge funds) and charge 3-5% for any money that flow through your hands.
Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto's husband was known as Mr. 10%, so you must admit that 3-5 per cent is wonderfully restrained.
Michael Steinhardt is a thug. He was (maybe still is?)a major smuggler of antiquities. The good news about Michael is that he is also morbidly obese.
The Federal Reserve and Treasury partnership is great, eh? What's not to like about a system that uses masses' money by paying them
less than 1% on their deposits while using those deposits to rake in
6 to 10%? Then, when casino capitalism is at its apex and due for a fall, snatching the wallets of the masses to keep things going just as they are?
No revolution has been a revolution in monetary matters.
That's a problem, no?
All hail usury.
The sweat of your brow is nothing compared to monetary equity.
Mr. Weiss, that's an interesting take on "follow the money".
"I always compare Kristol's father's and uncle's openness about their Jewishness in their politics to the subterfuge that Kristol engages in."
The evangelicals (Christian fundamentalists) are doing the same thing. They pretty much control the GOP, but you rarely see any sign of their religion. Abortion is almost never mentioned. Occasionally, they talk in code about "a culture of life" or some such nonsense (life begins at conception, strict constructionist Justices). The intimidated, corporate press now refers to them only as "social conservatives" or "the base of the Republican Party".
It was completely different 20-30 years ago when the Moral Majority was very up-front about who they were and what they were trying to do.
Did Phil read Deep Capture?