Russ. 1st link won't come up. Please check.
Otherwise, very interesting. Thanks.
Have to laugh. 2/3 into Hathaway article, was thinking how the vulnerability inherent - in the still large short and derivative positions - almost begs to be attacked by someone like Soros. Doubly so, now JPM and other major players are already struggling with their Enron exposure, PLUS additional hits likely on the way from Argentina.
Sure enough, at the end of the article Hathaway quips:
<It is a pity that George Soros decided to call it a day insofar as macro economic portfolio bets are concerned. The killing to be made by attacking the gold short position fits the pattern of some of his most notable coups.>
Still remember the Soros caper, years ago, with the British Pound. What a circus that was!<lol>
FWIW, my 2 bits on the keystone holding this teetering house of cards up is Treasury rates. During the past year or more, Contrary Investor web site ran some excellent work demonstrating JPM exposure to interest rate derivatives dwarfs everything else combined!!!
So IMHO? A massive attack focused there would be the final nail in the coffin. LTCM debacle would be chump change by comparison!
Governments across the globe would be forced to close all their markets for weeks while clueless politicians and CBers vainly badger an army of bean counters to find an escape from the corner they painted themselves into over many years.
Of course all that is, shall we say, still "unthinkable" to most of the denial gang holding political power across the planet. Tic toc.......
Regards,
Isopatch |
