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Yes, that's right... However, these are all ideas that aren't practical, precisely because there's no political consensus that's sufficient to implement them.

Well, I understand the rhetoric and, in principle, it sounds great. However, what do you propose in practice? Death penalty for people like Dick Fuld? Issue more govt debt to increase the SEC budget to $1T? I mean all these issues (principal-agent, public goods, negative externalities...

Well, pls be sure to let me know when/if you figure out a way to prevent people from "screwing, penetrating, pushing, shuffling". Until such time, I do believe my suggestion is infinitely more practical. And yes, I am also unhappy about the fact that we have seemingly not learned our lesson...

No, that's not my point... My point is that "fixing" is, first and foremost, about each one of us individually. Institutions and society as a whole will inevitably follow when/if most of us "fix" ourselves. To me, there's no other way, really, in the very grand scheme of things.

Of course, it's all gonna happen again. We just do whatever we can to a) make the odds of it happening lower; b) minimise the impact on the system as a whole, by understanding the fragility issues. It's like fires and the advances in fire-fighting. Nobody can guarantee fires won't happen, but...

Mate, you're asking me a very deep philosophical question that great minds since Heraclitus have been trying to answer. I don't really know what to tell you, except that I, personally, don't have either great aspirations to "fix" things or hopes that things get "fixed". Our institutions and...

Hmmmm, I have to say, these arguments don't sway me personally at all... In hindsight, lots of money could have been and undoubtedly was made trading all sorts of things. To me, that's neither here nor there, but that's just my personal view.

Firstly, "always" is a bit of an exaggeration. A recent earnings release from a certain large tech company comes to mind. Secondly, why can't analysts be that accurate? It's not like there's a lack of data. Moreover, I ain't an expert, but I imagine earnings exhibit a lot of...

Agreed w/ pretty much everything GoC said above. Given the complexity and severity of the issues surrounding EUR the currency, I have never really understood the fascination w/EURUSD. Sure, it's likely the most liquid and commonly traded FX instrument out there, but you have to take into...

And it's precisely where we're going, although slowly... This is one of the most important parts of recent regulatory reform, which is also being resisted by the banking oligopoly, although with less vigor. Still, I do believe the writing's on the wall...

Well, I dunno, mate... What do you propose as an alternative? Should we all give up and go home? Yes, it all might be futile and doomed, but, guess what, maybe the world ends on 21 Dec this year? Or maybe Skynet goes operational in 5 years? Or maybe this is all the Matrix? No point in...

Yeah, so I guess we're pricing a prolonged japanification of Switzerland that's worse than what actually happened in Japan, brought upon by ccy strength, rather than anything domestic. I, for one, find it difficult to price something like that as a central scenario. So, if Swissie guvvies had...

Well, the root of the problem is, unfortunately, political and social. Humans can't deal with issues of that sort well at our current level of development. As a result, we have to deal with the system as a given and try to make sure it's as sound as can be. That's the whole point of a lot of...

This is 100% correct and there's a lot of work and analysis that lots of people are doing to try and understand the system fragility issues. And yes, this work is needed and useful, but none of it uses notional values as a starting point. Only ZH and his ilk keep putting these ridiculously...

Swiss govt bonds are extremely illiquid, because there's virtually no free float. And let me get this straight, you guys think buying a 10y bond that yields arnd 75bps is a good idea? That, if I am not mistaken, is one of, if not the lowest, 10y sovereign bond yield on the planet. I have to...

I see... So what's reality telling us here?

The only other thing that's remotely related is Eurodollar options, which are more liquid than treasuries. However, the underlying is different, so take care.

Erm, no... There's quite a lot of information on this out there. DTCC and BIS, for one, collect a lot of the data on this mkt. Moreover, given the mkt is gravitating towards central clearing, the amount of available info is only likely to increase, as people like LCH and CME publish their...

Well, this isn't to say that it's impossible that Lincoln was, in fact, homosexual, but there seems to be as much actual evidence for that as for him having been one of the X-Men. Such a claim is all the more suspect, given the ulterior motive involved. Even the idea that he had a difficult...

No, I just find it curious that the idea that Lincoln was gay arose because it was advocated aggressively by C. A. Tripp, a famous gay activist (no doubt to further a particular agenda). Given that Lincoln was married, had, what, 4 children and there's zero actual evidence that he was...