Well, I'm skeptical.
What I surmise the author says (I have not read the book, but did look at a couple of reviews) depends ultimately, as everything economic does, on trust.
The global financial system cannot be trusted.
What we have lived through in the last few years, from Enron to LIBOR and everything in between, is a series of scams, each larger and more damaging than its predecessor. The failure to regulate the unprincipled thugs in charge of things, which is itself a function not of laxity or something innocent, but related exclusively to the thugocracy's control over the regulators, means that those who are at the mercy of them are getting shorn mercilessly.
The last prosecution of any significance involved Enron. Since then, nothing.
The only things criminals understand is doing time and losing money. When the Sheriff is your pal, your don't worry about anything. But since criminals are essentially dumb, they will overreach. Perhaps LIBOR is the overreaching I have waited for because it is truly massive. And though jail does not look likely, the loss of a lot of money to class actions might be, finally, what ends the madness. |
