Hey guys... I know, I know... another "doomsday" scenario from Chris, ever the pessismist... but I ask both of you, who know me so well... to ask yourselves a serious question... "Was Klein always such a pessismist?"
I think you know the answer to that. I'm not. I'm actually an optimist and an opportunity-taker... if you will.
We are on the precipice of the greatest financial catastrophe in modern history, and I think you are both beginning to realize that. As my father says... this is the time to find your opportunity and make the most of it. The more informed and realistic you are, the better off you will be.
Please read the following.... and take it to heart. I care about both of you very much and I don't see any way out of this mess (given what I know and what I've learned) for a few years. The government is doing everything they can to cover up the mess and protect those who took advantage of all of us... they will fall, as they stood atop the house of cards. The real question is... "Who will rise from the ashes?"
"Despite last summer’s collapse in private-label MBS and related markets, the faltering Wall Street Bubble nonetheless persevered up until the Lehman collapse. While it was problematic that overall system Credit growth had slowed markedly, there remained key sectors of Credit and risk intermediation that remained very much in expansionary mode. In particular, GSE-related obligations, bank Credit, and money market fund assets had expanded rapidly in spite of the subprime collapse. Importantly, the speculator community had maintained easy access to cheap finance. As I have noted often, despite the unfolding bust in mortgage and risk assets, market faith in “money” and the core of the system had held steadfast. This all ended abruptly three weeks ago with the Lehman filing.
Today, confidence has been shattered, and Wall Street finance is a complete and unsalvageable bust. The spigot for Trillions of finance - that for years fueled the asset markets and U.S. Bubble economy – has been essentially shut off and dismantled. In particular, Wall Street finance was a mechanism for intermediating higher-yielding riskier loans. This finance provided rocket fuel for both residential and commercial real estate markets – and the attendant wealth effects. Wall Street finance also grew into the key source of finance for auto purchases, student loans, Credit cards, municipal finance and various business enterprises. Many of these loans were of a risk profile unappealing to traditional bank lending – and, hence, provided the type of higher yields quite appealing to the speculator community.
And, importantly, as the stature of Wall Street finance grew its impact upon the real economy became embedded deep into the Economic Structure. Or, stated differently, risky loans came to play a major role in determining spending and investment patterns throughout the “Bubble” economy. Wall Street finance became a major direct and indirect generator of household incomes and corporate profits. Moreover, Wall Street finance came to dominate the flow of finance both in and out of the securities markets. Wall Street could create its own liquidity and funnel it into the U.S. and global markets – and earn unimaginable returns in the process.
It is today impossible to comprehend the full ramifications from The Bust in Wall Street Finance. Yet we can be rather certain that for the foreseeable future much less Credit and liquidity will be directed to the asset markets. And, at the same time, there will be significantly less Credit Availability for riskier loans of all varieties – for the household, business, financial and the government sectors. Few appreciate that these dynamics are extremely problematic for the U.S. Bubble Economy – an economic system that had come to a large extent to be governed by asset-based and high-risk lending. These dynamics are at the heart of today’s Acute Financial and Economic Fragility and the resulting imploding markets.
The leveraged speculating community played such an integral role in the overall Credit Bubble and, more specifically, to the Bubble in Wall Street Finance. They were instrumental in both spurring financial sector Credit creation/leveraging, while directing this Flood of Finance to the asset markets. And the more the leverage and the greater the Flow to inflating markets, the higher the returns generated by this expanding pool of speculative finance. And the greater the returns, the more robust the “investment” flows into the hedge fund community – spurring more leverage and more potent fuel for additional self-reinforcing asset inflation. Well, this historic speculative Bubble is now in the process of blowing up. One of the greatest manias ever – surely The World's Greatest Episode of “Ponzi Finance” – is absolutely coming apart. And the wreckage is accumulating in all markets – everywhere.
Here at home, our maladjusted economic system will only be sustained by somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.0 TN of new Credit. It’s simply not going to happen. The $700bn from Washington would seem like an enormous amount of support. In reality, it’s nowhere even close to the amount necessary for systemic stabilization. To the $2.0 TN or so of new Credit required this year (and next) add perhaps as much as several Trillion more necessary to accommodate speculative de-leveraging (liquidations forced by huge losses). Importantly, the Bust in Wall Street Finance has ensured that insufficient liquidity will be forthcoming to maintain inflated asset prices and sustain the Bubble economy – creating catastrophe for the leveraged speculating community.
The “Freidmanites” thought they understood the (post-crash) policy mistakes that led to The Great Depression. They believed the “Roaring Twenties” was the “Golden Age of Capitalism.” The great bust could have been avoided with a simple ($5bn or so) banking system recapitalization. As we are witnessing today, the issue is not some manageable amount of new “capital” to replenish banking system losses. Instead, the predicament is the massive and unmanageable amount of new Credit necessary to, on the one hand, sustain a mal-adjusted Bubble Economy and, on the other, the Trillions more required to accommodate a gigantic speculative de-leveraging. I have a very difficult time seeing a way out of this terrible mess."
The above quote is from Prudent Bear
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