QUOTE OF THE DAY

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

"Deregulation allowed the financial marketplace to devolve from an institution that served the overall economy -- by allocating capital most efficiently to the companies that could put it to best use -- into an institution whose primary mission was to serve itself.

The vast over-the-counter trade in instruments known as derivatives, nominally worth a staggering $600 trillion worldwide, is largely an exercise in make-believe. Firms make highly leveraged investments in exotic securities whose true value is opaque. Then they hedge these investments by buying insurance against potential losses, although the insurer doesn't have a fraction of the money it would need to make good on all its promises.

All this investing and hedging generate huge transaction fees and big profits, which can be skimmed off the top each year. Everything's fine, until there's some disruption in the real economy -- a downturn in the housing market, say. If the disruption is severe enough, the web of make-believe deals starts to unravel. At which point the government steps in and bails everybody out."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102203866.html