Whose pockets are being filled with this financial collapse?

[lonestarnot]

Or is there any money left anywhere?

[PDJane]

1. The folks who have been collecting assets

The ones (mostly corporations) who own an inordinate amount of the planet as it stands.

The very, very, very few at the top of the financial heap.

Everyone else is going to get nailed to the wall.

[leeroysphitz]

2. Not yours. n/t

[whistle]

3. International Bankers

[alittlelark]

4. Those that made the big $$$ are already out of the game.

Those left are the peons that thought they were Titans.

It's actually rather sad.


In reality those of us w/ $$ will be able to buy real estate at the bottom of the market.

[napi21]

5. As far as I can tell, the only ones who will benefit are the

leaders Officers of these big boys. That's why Barack is objecting to any of the officers getting "golden parachutes" out of Fanny MAE and Freddie Mac! Everyone else is going to take a bath!

[Odin2005]

6. A few lucky speculators and the CEOs that got fat bonuses (bonii?)

Everyone else is screwed, including rich investors whose investments turned out to be worthless paper. I'm no economist, but what I know tells me that one should expect the economy to cycle violently back and forth between inflation and deflation as the forces of deficit spending and the freezing up of credit work their way through the economy.

[The Shadow]

11. Isn't "Bonus" Two Words?

Sorry, couldn't resist. It's an old saying at work that when we do anything successfully the senoir managers (CEOs,CFOs, etc.) will get a big fat bonus and we the workers will get a "bone us". In otherwords screwed, just like the little folk in this crash, they will get a "bone us".

[Odin2005]

14. Upper Management = egotistical fuck-wits. n/t.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. trillions have gone poof

think 1929.

i expect to see suicides

[cliffordu]

15. And, if we're really lucky, a few homicides.

[BrotherBuzz]

18. I expect to see pigs fly

And a little tribute to an old friend, "Nothing Shocks Me Anymore".

Lipstick is truly optional.

[DefenseLawyer]

8. The ones who cashed out

before the ponzi scheme collapsed. They see this as a chance to consolidate their position at a bargain price. Same as it ever was... Same as it ever was...

[Speck Tater]

9. This time, nobody is.

Money is being destroyed. Money is debt and when debt goes bad the money goes with it.

Suppose you deposit $1,000 in the bank. The bank keeps $100 in the vault and loans out the other $900 to someone else. That someone else deposits the loan check for $900 in their bank account. Their bank keeps $90 in the vault and loans out the other $810.

This borrower puts the $810 loan check in his bank account, and his bank put $81 in the vault and loans out the other $729 dollars.

So far, based on your $1000 deposit, a total of $$900 + $810 + $729 = $2,439.00 has been loaned out. Including the $100 + $90 + $81 kept in the bank vaults, that's $2,710.00 of money in circulation.

BUT, only $1,000 of that is real money. The rest is leveraged bookkeeping entries.

Now suppose your bank goes bust. The FDIC gives you back your $1,000, but there is still another $1,439.00 in leverage faux money that has to be unwound. When you get back your $1,000 there's nothing left to back up that additional $1,439.00. To meet their reserve requirements, the other banks have to borrow more money, or go bankrupt. But the loans they are holding as collateral are worthless because they aren't real money any more, just bookkeeping entries against some real money that has been withdrawn and taken out of circulation.

So the banks go bust and the leveraged junk paper unwinds, and the "money" (which wasn't even real money to begin with) simply vanishes.

Most of the "money" in circulation today is faux money that was created out of thin air in exactly this way. Now the real money is coming up short and the faux money will unwind and simply vanish.

[justiceischeap]

10. It sounds a bit like Enron bookkeeping, no? nt

[Speck Tater]

12. It's called "Fractional Reserve Banking." It's been S.O.P for ages. NT

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Why I said, trillions have gone poof

I get it... and this could be really bad

[Odin2005]

16. Deflation is a bitch...

:yoiks:

[Speck Tater]

17. Since it's fated to happen anyway,

let's hope that the bright side is that sleeping voters will wake up the the disaster that is GOP economic policies.