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Ha-ha, now you be talking completely loco, man... Firstly, your sweeping statements about the respect practitioners have for academics and their work are plain wrong. Secondly, the fact you haven't seen it doesn't mean it ain't there. Finally, even if it were true that the all-knowing...

Or alternatively muster the force of public opinion to make sure the system changes and Goldies et al fall off their high perch. I think I'll join the crowd and try to do that instead.

Well, I just meant to say that people don't use the words 'backwardation' and 'contango' in the world or rates. I guess equivalents would be 'inverted' and 'steep'. As to what the shape of the curve actually means, that's an entirely different story. Some of it, as Rodney notes, has to do...

Technically, I would have to agree with you. Goldies, strictly speaking, operates within the confines of law, as it exists now, which means that it's really all the government's fault. Since the govt, theoretically, is elected by the US taxpayer, the latter gets exactly what he/she paid for...

Life is random and unsecure, unless you happen to be a systemically important financial institution. If you have been anointed as one of the above, you can always count on a govt backstop, which would make your life orderly and very secure indeed.

Federal deficit should imply higher long-term treasury yields, which are used as risk-free basis for all other cost-of-capital calculations. As a result, all discount rates rise, which makes private investment in a project less attractive, simply because the PV of your future cashflows from...

As I mentioned, Phibro, which is a unit of Citi, is doing something very similar. JP just entered this space, as well, so they're not quite up to Goldman's level. There's a basic flaw with all your arguments. The debate about Goldman and the bailouts is about the long-term costs/benefits...

I disagree... Firstly, pretty much every single bank is doing the physical crude contango trade (specifically, the well-publicized cases include Phibro, which is a Citi unit; JP, who are doing the trade in heating oil). It's not nice, as they're effectively taking money from the suckers who...

Backwardation/contango terminology is not used in the rates world. It's all about the slope of the curve and the rolldown. Also, you have to be a bit more specific about what you're buying and what you're using to hedge.

Please, by all means, don't let me stand in the way of your enjoyment of all these wonderful things. Does beg the question, though, of what the heck you guys are doing living in the West (I assume you are). Given all these bad things happening (no gold standard, manipulative govt that you...

I agree with that... Both Aussie and Kiwi are overvalued, in my view. But they just won't give up, in spite of anything that gets thrown their way. It's completely crazy in the world of rates.

Your sarcasm is simply killin' me here... I don't know whether humanity's evolution/development in the last 50 years had been 'immense'. That's just a word. I do know that the world is very different today than it was 50 years ago, in a whole variety of ways. As to the rest, don't you...

This happens, at the moment, because both are instruments strongly affected by the underlying currents of risk aversion/flight-to-quality.

Wait, but you're talking about older news, while the stuff I have posted is brand-spanking-new, hot off the accounting profession's presses...

Looks like we might have fisticuffs amongst the accountants... First we have the IASB with this: http://www.iasb.org/NR/rdonlyres/4483EDB9-CAE7-4119-A0FC-C243ECDF32D1/0/snapshot2.pdf If the proposals above are enacted, simplistically, any instrument that has 'contractual cashflows' doesn't...

Sorry, are you saying that all these nasty things (increases in national debt, booms and bust, wars, etc) cannot or are less likely to happen under the gold standard? I would humbly beg to differ. You really wouldn't have to go far to find a plethora of counterexamples.

I'd say pretty well, all things considered, wouldn't you? I'd give some data to support my claim (there's been research on world GDP dating back hundreds of years; things of that nature), but I think the nihilists here will deny that any of it is meaningful.

You must have missed the 'at the moment' bit at the end of the sentence. Many concepts, e.g. institutionalized slavery and torture, have existed in the past and were basic parts of human life for thousands of years, but, somehow, I don't see anyone calling to reinstate these things in modern...

I would second that, except I would replace "disallowing credit creation" with "controlling credit creation". I am a big fan of 'enlightened pragmatism'. Disallowing something basic, in my view, never works, as it's normally unenforceable and causes more damage than good. I do realize that...

This has been shown to be ineffective at times when it's most necessary, due to, among other factors, long lead times. [B] No, I obviously got your point, but you seem to have missed mine. People deciding in favor of the gold standard in Zimbabwe has nothing to do with the merits of the...