The real problem isn't banks, it's investors

[CHIMO]

When Mark Zuckerberg announced on the Oprah Winfrey TV show that he was giving a $100m (£62m) grant to disadvantaged schools in Newark, New Jersey, he was accused of turning to charity to improve his image. His image, especially in the light of the Social Network film about his life, was the focus of attention.

There was little discussion of his meagre cash pile and how the donation would be in Facebook shares. Because while the 26-year-old internet tycoon is estimated to be worth $6.9bn, he is a paper billionaire.

The phenomenon that is Facebook is expected to float in 2012. Until that time Newark schools will need to sell the company's shares on the fast-growing market in private shares.

Some estimates put the buying and selling of unlisted privately held shares in the US at the same level as trading in listed shares. In other words, the highly regulated and taxed public markets on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are being superceded by largely unregulated and lightly taxed private markets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/01/investors-are-the-problem-not-banks

[xchrom]

1. It's regulation - it's that they let investors either

Pressure for shady deals legally - or let banks offer
Shady deals legally.

Everybody loves free money IF they can get away with it.

[CHIMO]

2. The Article

Seems to be on a way out idea. But if one thinks about it, someone has to be behind the money. If the funds were to loose money, then they wouldn't be back in the merry go round.

The regulations set the playing field, but the funds seem to be able to take a position and presumably win. If they were now to be burned, then the next bubble would disappear. It would then be on to the next bubble.

[DeSwiss]

3. One cannot fix an inherently flawed system. It must be replaced.

"Capitalism did not arise because capitalists stole the land and the workmen's tools, but because it was more efficient than feudalism. It will perish because it is not merely less efficient than socialism, but actually self-destructive." ~ http://www.stephenjaygould.org/people/john_haldane.html">J.B.S. Haldane

"The reality is that institutional establishments, institutions of codified thought, and institutions of societal influence and power, meaning philosophies, dogmas on one hand and corporations and governments on the other, each have a high propensity to engage in denial, dishonesty, and corruption to maintain self-preservation and self-perpetuation. The result is a continuous culture lag where social progress by way of incorporating new socially-helpful scientific advancements is constantly inhibited. It is like walking through a brick wall as the established power orthodoxies continue to perpetuate themselves for their own interests and comforts."

...

"We have to understand that government as we know it today, is not in place for the well being of the public, but rather for the perpetuation of their establishment and their power. Just like every other institution within a monetary system. Government is a monetary invention for the sake of economic and social control and its methods are based upon self-preservation, first and foremost. All a government can really do is to create laws to compensate for an inherent lack of integrity within the social order."

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"In society today the public is essentially kept distracted and uninformed. This is the way that governments maintain control. If you review history, power is maintained through ignorance." ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmHaTirnCc">Peter Joseph