Think of it this way: it didn’t exist then, and it doesn’t exist now.
Good question.
“Wall Street’s Final ‘08 Toll: $6.9 Trillion Wiped Out”
And that’s just me...
;-)
“How do you lose 6.9 trillion dollars?”
Mark to Fantasy, instead of Mark to Market.
That’s 23,333 for every man woman and child in the USA
The implications are that the markets are disrupted for more than a year, for starters.
Here is a recent paper by two people from the NBER comparing the current crisis to other financial period of turmoil since WWII in developed western economies. The take-away is that this won’t be over quickly, we could fall further and that such periods in markets don’t “solve” quickly:
http://ws1.ad.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/rogoff/files/Aftermath.pdf
Funny money lost.
If 6.9 trillion people thought they each had a dollar and asked for their buck at the same time, they would all learn that the money they thought was there...wasn’t there after all. That’s real money.
The problem is that that much wasn’t there to begin with except on paper. So, part of it was real and part of it was speculation. And many honest people thought they had enough speculation income on which to retire. Just like the greedy folks at ENRON thought they had more than they did. And I thought Sarbanes/Oxley took care of that type problem. Guess it’s not as easy as they thought to legislation speculatin’, huh.
Those hold goats from our past who “didn’t cotten to banks” and “buried their cash in Prince Albert Tobacco cans” don’t sound so stupid anymore. Wish I had rolled my own all those years before I quit smoking. Might have a little nest egg now instead of a piece of paper showing what “once had been”.
It's a simple "BR" or "P" Look into it..
It's a simple "BR" or "P" Look into it..
For myself, I believe losses will total above $ 10 Trillion easily. Not counting hedge fund losses for private investors with megabucks at risk. Not counting Madoff's admitted theft of a measly $ 50 Billion. By the way, no audit of Madoff's investments has been completed yet. The total could go higher.
Bill and Hillary Seem to Still Be Raking in Cash for Favors
These corrupt hucksters belong behind bars . . . Need I say more ________ ? They are worse than Blago.
“Value” is what people “think” at any given point in time... it is all in the mind (that’s my thinking... ha!).
Investing at the craps tables in Las Vegas would have been a lot more fun in 2008...and probably more profitable. Our market system is rife with corruption, and the clueless federal “oversight” agencies are totally inept at regulating the crooks. These agencies should be shut down so that buyers of stocks will know they are on their own, instead of clinging to the myth that their investments are “protected” by the government.
The money never existed. It was only listed as ‘assets’ by the banks and businesses who in turn used 90% of that amount to loan credit to others. There was nothing but ‘hope’ attached to it that the people and businesses who were ‘loaned the credit’ at 100% to the first, 90% to the second, 90% of 90% to the third, and etcetera would repay it ‘in cash’ ~~~ When you take credit card B and pay off credit card A because B has a lower rate, where’s THAT ca$h? There is none!
When FDR took the USofA off the GOLD STANDARD, the great Mother Ship of State started sinking. Right now I think it’s listing to the left, but there’s still time to correct the balance . . . however, some people are going to have to throw their luggage overboard and a few people will probably jump in after it, thinking that they are the exception to the rule that you can’t take it with you when you die.
Luggage? US Auto Manufacturers going into Bankruptcy, UAW being downsized, NAFTA abandoned, NAU abandoned, NEA losing influence, denial of need for building fence on Southern Border abandoned, Federal intrusion into State affairs abandoned, etc.
In its place will be cottage industries, growth of manufacturing in the South without UAW or other Unions dominating the employee base, growth of jobs at Southern Border, States making STATE decisions, etc.
It CAN happen but Conservatives, Traditionalists and Constitutionalists MUST start right now and not wait until 2010 or 2012 to get to work to cause it to happen.
Remember, WE are the Country of Infinite Possibilities! We ARE the PIE others want a piece of or they wouldn’t keep coming over here from whatever Country they left.
So, let us get to work. We have a Country, a Nation, to save and a Mother Ship of State to right and get moving onward across the expanse of the sea of time.
We exchange bits of paper with IOUs buying each others houses and such to the tune of $6.9T. From time to time real cash trades hands to buy one of these IOUs, so that there is a "market."
The we all decide to pay off our IOUs sell our assets for cash and discover that they cannot bring $6.9T, so our IOUs are now worthless. We just "lost" $6.9T. We still have all the tangible assets, but anyone who took an IOU for a tangible asset thinking he was going to retire on the interest is out of luck. He might be able to get the asset back but it won't pay his retirement income.