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From: chris
Date: 05 Apr 2010
Time: 07:02:11 -0500
This argument is really about who has the power to give value. But those in the art world who have the power to give value are going to be subject to change whether they like it or not unless two things happen to the financial world. How that will pan out I don't know but it will happen because a momentous shift has happened . The two things - 1 - banks have to be separated and the casino activity - sectioned off from the rest of the public and not too big to fail. 2 - The financial derivatives - Credit Default Swaps have to be outlawed and not just regulated this is because they incentivise destruction. At the moment anyone who has a bank account (and arnt we all locked into them) is basically contributing to the bullets in a murderer gun. George Soros on Credit Default Swaps:- “It’s like buying life insurance on someone else’s life and owning a licence to kill him,” he said of the swaps, which pay the buyer face value if a borrower defaults, in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent. " - incentivised destruction. Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5514341/George-Soros-urges-governments-to-outlaw-toxic-credit-default-swaps.html 'We now know, for example, Goldman Sachs helped Greece hide its public debt and then placed financial bets that Greece would default, using credit-default swaps to avoid risking its own capital. It's the same tactic Goldman used for (and against) American International Group (AIG): Hide the ball, and then bet against the ball and fob off the risk to investors and taxpayers, using derivatives to remove the risky tactics from the balance sheets. Even today no one knows the fair value of the complex derivatives underlying these and related maneuvers, which is exactly the point.' Ref: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/fraud-on-the-street_b_519450.html Goldman Sachs over arching hand in the financial crisis:- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/14/michael-lewis-wall-street_n_498690.html The ICE Trust - a new little Credit Default Swap club set up by and for banks - In other words the normalisation of incentivisation of destruction: - Re : http://thekomisarscoop.com/2010/03/the-ice-age/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheKomisarScoop+%28The+Komisar+Scoop%29 Now given that we have Sovereign Debt in all major currencies and incentivised destruction thanks to CDS, massive lobbying to water down financial regulation in the US; everything is primed for, not just a double dip but an elephant thinking it can fly over a cliff.