Thanks for taking the time to reply and clarify my post.
I’d appreciate any comments.
It seemed that the markets were working well for years then along came Phil Gramm and Clinton. Except for 1987 and LTC we’ve had financial and commodity markets that were fairly orderly and worked well for decades. Investors had trust and that benefited the markets and greater good.
Then we threw away what worked and we ended up with too big to fail entities and a commodities market gone wild. Now we have a system that many investors really don’t trust. The fast money people believe that instability, volatility and profits mean more than overall confidence. Wild axxed speculation may provide profits but it can lead to bubbles and much worse.
The financial markets with all that money sloshing around are not much different from the drug markets in Mexico and Columbia where the money taints and touches everything including government. When that happens nothing is ever done for the greater good, nor is the outcome going to be positive for most.
Gramm is also the poster boy for the aphorism, "If all the economists in the world were laid end-to-end, there would be a couple of dozen supremely bored hookers."
Just btw, the decades-old notion of a drug-cartel-infested Colombia is these days pretty much false to fact. The last two administrations were VERY vigourous in eliminating them; for example, the city of Medellin, of late infamy, is almost completely cartel-free these days. Of course, the Colombian government's methods were not those recommended by Blackstone. Effectively, they offered the narcotraficantes the following choice: quit dealing (period!), leave Colombia, or die. Undemocratic, perhaps, but VERY effective.
FReegards!