Most “money” in existence cannot function as a store of value, although many new inventions have improved its utility as a medium of exchange.
This is why many Conservatives want to begin the phaseout of the fiat-based US Dollar and replace it with an asset-based US dollar. I’d do it, but it will be based on a mix of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper and nickel.
Eliot Spitzer was charged with the task of removing Hank Greenburg to make it all possible. He succeeded and Hank was ousted from AIG.
Hank was however a billionaire. He set his dogs to track Spitzer and lo and behold discovered ol’ eliot was customer #9 at the whorehouse.
It took years but Hank’s revenge was sweet. The cost was trivial for the reward
This is article is dense, and I’m going to have to re-read it a few times.
A first comment:
What jumped out at me was the statement in the opening paragraph that the majority of the CDS (credit default swaps) written by AIG were on European bank assets. I thought the problem was that the CDS division had been writing these swaps primarily on debt that was involved in real estate derivatives.
it is a dense article and I need to study it.
anyway this is all frightening. if guys like Greenspan are continuing to make mistakes in 2009 and beyond, real people are getting burned to a crisp financially. Entire countries are getting burned to a crisp economically— Brazil, S. Korea...
BTW how to invest in this brave new world, especially in view of the upcoming election? Will Clinton or Trump make any significant difference? If Clinton cannot even handle her email messages, how could she possibly follow arguments concerning the Japanese monetary helicopter?? These guys should all be rooting for a Trump presidency since Clinton is a looney and her election would plunge the world into economic chaos. She would simply hand over the reins to a Soros flunky or some Saudi prince and the entire US economy would be up for sale to the highest bidder. Yikes.