This SHOULD scare the hell out of you.

[MercutioATC]

It's a repost, but it didn't get nearly the attention it deserves:

"As the graphic shows, derivatives account for 1,000% of world GDP, in essence allowing the world to believe fiat money is worth something only courtesy of financial sleight of hand which involved derivatives and securitizations. Yet all those calling for an end to CDS also have to realize that due to CDS intertwined nature, the world fiat system would need to do away with all derivatives (not just CDS), and when you do that you basically eliminate the other hybrid asset classes: securitizations being chief among them. What this would leave us with is a liquidity pyramid which ends with bank loans, which are much more manageable and whose risk can be controlled. It would also leave the world with a fiat currency system, which would lose about 10x of its value overnight, thereby leading to an instantaneous and global unwind of fiat money, and rolling waves of domestically denominated hyperinflation"

http://mindbodypolitic.com/2009/12/26/zerohedge-on-banning-credit-default-swaps/

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

1. Who among us

can do anything about this? :shrug:

[jgraz]

2. dup

[ixion]

3. yep, this is a big matzah ball still hanging out there

and why I laugh at the people who talk about recovery.

[jgraz]

4. Yep, and no one is doing a goddamn thing about it.

Not Congress, not the President. No one.

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Derivatives are tools of economic warfare.

That is why they are not being reigned in and why no serious reform of them is possible. They were used in Asia in the late 90s to transfer the wealth of the Asian Tigers to Western corporate interests, creating serious poverty and hopelessness, especially among the middle classes. They were used here in 2008 to transfer the wealth of the American people to Wall Street, and to usher in the Piratization of education, infrastructure and healthcare.

[nosmokes]

8. Replace the word *derivative* with *bank* and you're onto something.

[Nikki Stone1]

10. No, it's derivatives. Banks (except for the very few) will be victims as well.

Someone posts a regular Friday night thread here on banks that have been closed during the week. The list is actually staggering.

[MercutioATC]

15. Agreed. Most "banks" are pawns in this game.

Derivatives can be bought by anybody, but the big players control the game.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. But the big players aren't pawns.

[nosmokes]

16. If it weren't derivatives they would find (invent) another tool to accomplish

the same task.

And not every bank is guilty, but not a single credit union is. Yet both have about the same amount of regulation. I'm no financial wizard, but I know for a fact that ain't right.

[Goldstein1984]

6. Divest from banks

Send the banksters a message.

If all of us withdraw money from banks and redeposit the funds in credit unions.

If we spread the word and others do the same.

Maybe it would create a little blip on the balance books that would send a message.

I have already done this.

[laughingliberal]

7. I don't have much but I keep 1 tiny bank account. I deposit just enough in it to cover our auto

insurance draft every month and a $20 cushion. It is deposited about 4 days before the draft comes out and no more is deposited until the next month. Any other money we get is kept in cash and a little on a prepaid debit card which I use to pay our cell phone bill and internet connection online. Not exactly keeping millions from them, lol, but I feel good about it.

[Goldstein1984]

9. Every little bit matters

We are slowly accumulating a gold coins as a fall-back.

Right now, almost all of our disposable income is going to help an unemployed family member. We've adjusted to living on what's left, and once the situation changes we're going to divert the "surplus" to another currency outside the country. Someplace we can go if all hell breaks loose and the dollar crashes. We're doing the homework now. Hope to be able to implement next summer.

[laughingliberal]

11. Color me envious

I have some raw ore that has a high assay of gold and platinum in it but no way to extract it as yet. Am hoping we get a lead on someone honest who can process it for us. Won't, likely make us wealthy but might keep us going a little while longer. Otherwise, we have an acquaintance who is without worries who will let us work a patented claim he has on one of the rivers nearby. But we get most of our business here in the summer and, by the time we wrap it up, the snow has fallen. Bad timing is the story of my life. Lol.

[Goldstein1984]

12. There's supposed to be lode gold further up the Eagle River

valley than most people are willing to hike. It's a state park, no commercial gold mining isn't allowed. My father's side of the family were placer miners in Sierra Nevada, and I learned to pan gold when I was a kid. I've played with the idea of trying to find some placer gold in the creeks that flow into the river, then maybe working my way up the creek...

We live in Eagle River, a town about fifteen miles outside of Anchorage, Alaska.

Timing has always been my problem, too.

[laughingliberal]

13. Our acquaintace has a claim on the Feather in CA

My step son and my husband have done some dredging in the past, my step son made his living that way for quite a while up on the American River in CA. We have a little dredge that is working. We have just got to get out there as soon as the snow melts this spring. It's the best shot we have. We also have a friend who works in Alaska in the fishing boats during the season. He has tried to get us to sign on as a couple to work up there doing that but we must get some things nailed down here before we can make any moves.

[Goldstein1984]

14. With the economy where it's at, it wouldn't surprise me to see

more people panning/dredging for gold.

Our company president is a former crab fisherman. Fishing is a hard life, but those who do it seem to love it.

You would probably love Alaska. We've tried to leave for warmer places twice, and both times we came back.