[Content Provider]

I wonder just how much of the world’s apparent wealth lies in these multiple-leveraged phantoms. I have had many discussions on the topic over the past year with a friend who argued that “on-paper” dollars were just as valid as cash-in-hand dollars.

So much money can simply disappear only if it never really existed in the first place.

[TigerLikesRooster]

“on-paper” dollars were just as valid as cash-in-hand dollars.

Only in Matrix-like "virtual world."

Actually many people have been living in virtual world(or virtual reality) for several years. Now it is unplugged.

[Etoo]

[I have had many discussions on the topic over the past year with a friend who argued that “on-paper” dollars were just as valid as cash-in-hand dollars.

 

So much money can simply disappear only if it never really existed in the first place.]

"Thus, clearly, money and goods are not the same thing but are, on the contrary, exactly opposite things. Most confusion in economic thinking arises from failure to recognize this fact. Goods are wealth which you have, while money is a claim on wealth which you do not have. Thus goods are an asset; money is a debt. If goods are wealth; money is non-wealth, or negative wealth, or even anti-wealth."

 

Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time', by Carroll Quigley; Page 44

 

Carroll Quigley was Bill Clinton's mentor.

[BillM]

In every case, cash changed hands and is still in circulation. The problem is that the people who invested with the prospect of long term cash returns have been swindled. This is a harsh term, but the attempts to hide the true risk of these CMO’s and CDO’s can’t be seen as anything else.

The people who invested in hedge funds were all sophisticated investors who took a chance and many won but now many are losing. Don’t feel sorry for them. They would not have shared their gains with you. Don’t let them share ttheir losses.

[Centurion2000]

I wonder just how much of the world’s apparent wealth lies in these multiple-leveraged phantoms. I have had many discussions on the topic over the past year with a friend who argued that “on-paper” dollars were just as valid as cash-in-hand dollars.

So much money can simply disappear only if it never really existed in the first place.

Well, fiat monetary systems rely on faith. Ironic isn't it? Even atheists have to have faith in something.