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| Mar 03, 2010 9:07 pm |
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re: re: Economic Capture - Money Power in the World |
Thomas Holford
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For what it's worth, here is an intriguing piece of data:
"Fifteen years ago, the combined assets of our six biggest banks totaled 17 percent of our GDP. By 2006, that number was 55 percent. Right now, it stands at 63 percent."
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/03/15-years-ago-combined-assets-of-6.html
There are an almost endless number of conspiracy theories and villains that one can fixate on in the arena of money and banking. My attitude is that where money is concerned, human beings are inexorably tempted to do selfish, unethical things.
Over the course of human history, there have been greedy and unethical bankers, politicians, regulators, borrowers, lenders, etc. etc.
Every party to a financial or monetary transaction needs to be suspected, monitored, and verified. Paraphrasing Ronald Reagan: "trust, but verify".
I prefer not to single out one group and say that they are the problem. Instead, I take the attitude that there is some temptation for everyone, and everyone needs to be watched. In particular, the watchers especially need to be watched.
In my opinion, I ascribe most blame for the current financial crisis to populist politicians like Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank who used their coercive powers over the banking system to drive the finance and banking system into catastrophe.
But there is plenty of blame to go around.
T. HolfordPrivate Reply to Thomas Holford (new win) |
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