"Ordinarily, the financial risk in a market, and hence the risk to the economy at large, is limited because the assets traded are finite. There are only so many houses, mortgages, shares of stock, [bars of gold], bushels of corn or barrels of oil in which to invest. But a synthetic instrument has no real assets. It is simply a bet on the performance of the assets it references. That means the number of synthetic instruments is limitless, and so is the risk they present to the economy. Synthetic structures referencing high-risk mortgages garnered hefty fees for Goldman Sachs and other investment banks. They assumed an ever-larger share of the financial markets, and contributed greatly to the severity of the crisis by magnifying the amount of risk in the system. Increasingly, synthetics became bets made by people who had no interest in the referenced assets. Synthetics became the chips in a giant casino, one that created no economic growth even when it thrived, and then helped throttle the economy when the casino collapsed." Carl Levin, US Senator "From the least to the greatest, all of them are greedy for unjust gains; and from prophet to priest they all deal falsely. They have treated the suffering of my people carelessly, saying, ‘all is well’ when there is no safety. They act shamefully, they commit terrible offenses; and yet they are not ashamed, and do not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall." Jeremiah 6:13-15 "We can all agree that AMERICA is now #1. We are the ENVY of the WORLD — and the best is yet to come!" Donald J. Trump "Easy is the descent into hell; The door to death and darkness stands open, day and night. But to retrace one's steps, to return once more to the pure clean air, and cheerfulness and life: That is our task, that is our true labour." Vergil "Anyone who bought stocks in mid-1929 and held onto them saw most of his or her adult life pass by before getting back to even.” Richard M. Salsman
