Silly games

Earlier, crooked games was used for the thing called finance and business. What you have are the Madoffs and others who pilfer outside of legal boundaries; then, there is a larger amount of effort going into keeping the game going so that legal pilfering can occur.

Say, like we see with the AIG bonuses (except, multiplied countless times) which don't make sense since the company could have been bankrupt without taxpayer help. From whence, then, would have come the payout.

Then, you got those arguing for unregulated manipulations via derivatives and other types of mechanics. That is, their casino capitalism is in favor of their pocket bulging extracts. Give us a break.

That is, there are many players, some are on the floors of all those market sites, such as The Street, CBOE, and the like. Too many, don't you think?

But, the silliness goes further.

Ben talks; Pandit talks; someone else talks; what do we get? Little blips in the indexes, and people go crazy. Money pours into the game. Ah, the poor retiree; what gives with all these financially errant fund managers?

We're in the situation where the loss is 10-12 years deep. Many have had their lives ruined.

Yet, the gaming continues. The headline says that Obama wants more control over fianance. Well, kudos to him if he can get it. Some feel that we can't regulate the best-and-brightest. No, let's just let all of us reasonable people go down with the ship because of their failings.

But, why the use of 'silly' in the title? Well, certain illegal activities require real brain power. We all appreciate that, yet what a waste. Being led around zombie-like by the comings and goings of the financial market is just that, silly.

The fact that we'll have to address? It's near-zero sum, folks. Any who makes some gain takes it from others. And, as we have seen many times, the few take from the many.

Does it have to be that way? No.

Remarks:

05/28/2015 -- Perhaps, we'll get back to this (does it or doesn't it?) before the downturn comes about. Too, near zero needs attention.

01/15/2015 -- One of the most-read, of late, as things do look unsettling. Did we learn anything?

10/16/2014 -- We are now five-plus years past the time of this posts. A lot has changed; more has not (will it ever?). We are now to the point where the years of largess, and seat-of-the-pants flying by the Fed, will come home to roost. Now, just because there have been a string of down days does not mean that we have hit the point where descent trumps ascent (in other words, no timing of the market can be implied here). But, the WSJ has an article about one high frequency group. They talk their benefits provided, namely, liquidity, efficiency, etc. However, the whole bit behind the ca-pital-sino needs serious examination. And, silliness keeps coming to mind. ... And, we are not being anti-computation. However, if we are going to use advanced computing, let's do something real: like, track all sales (daily and longitudinally) - yes, openness. Why? Remove the cheshire multiple, for one. Remove the cream scrapers and pocket pickers from the game. ...  So much to discuss.

08/01/2013 -- We're relook at this as we consider the good side (as if there is one) of financial engineering.

02/05/2012 -- Time to update the theme of the best and brightest.

10/13/2011 -- This needs to be updated due to an emerging phenomenon: OWS.

04/03/2011 -- Need to look at some background. Too, tranche and trash.

03/15/2011 -- The M & Ms are apropos.

11/02/2010 -- Two years later, the message is the same, except some changes have occurred. Of real note is that the jobless rate is high; out-housing really set up for that. Also, we need to re-look at that learned from the 'vons' guys, Ludwig and Friedrich. See Near Zero.

01/27/2010 -- It's really ca-pital-sino.

10/11/2009 -- Discussion has gone over to FED-aerated. Note the 10/11/2009 Remarks about the Business Week article on India's progress' inhibitors. 'Near zero' recognizes that some always suffer more than others, especially in win-win situations, as the whole notion of characterization minimizes visceral reactions by diminishing the real in favor of the abstracted (ah, the modern world, you say?).

08/24/2009 -- Last year, Ben blinked and panicked. He frantically pulled out all stops as if with no thought for tomorrow. Now, he has no use for 'mea culpa' big daddy that he is. Ben, start to unwind now. The Vienna School's view that these things are undecidable (which is a computational issue) is right on.

08/10/2009 -- As promised, FEDaerated is here.

07/31/2009 -- Let's see, 5,000 got over $1M for services rendered. Well, that's probably a sign of being a best-and-brightest, at least to certain eyes; it's called rolling-in-the-dough.

Now, this can be used to illustrate how the game it to fill the pockets of a small set to an exorbitant amount. Does the game need to be that way? Hell no. We'll look at that some more.

07/23/2009 -- After the bust and the rebound, toxic assets are still a problem due to tranche realities.

07/17/2009 -- China has eaten our lunch (and dinner). Shows how silly our games are. Yet, finance can be run by people who can be non-profit in scope and who have an impeccable (oh, what quaintness!) un-interest in money.

06/17/2009 -- A fresh look will be needed.

05/18/2009 -- Oh yes, got us in a mess and still wants the bonus.

03/30/2009 -- Near-zero will be looked at more closely.

03/25/2009 -- Rhetoric can be fun, but we have to get into these issues with depth and technicalities.

Modified: 05/18/2015