Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (21767)	8/30/2007 2:20:48 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220043

When you make money out of risk, the value of an entity reflects that risk. To assess that risk, you have rating agencies. If rating agencies screw up their ratings, willingly or not, the whole system is well at risk :-) Before they could screw the emerging markets, rating higher risks and forcing them to always pay more -and the emerging markets were stupid enough to go along with lousy financial policies. Today this is a rich man's disease. Countries that no longer have an industrial basis, trade financial instruments. Thus, depending heavily on these devices that are now hurting their economies. Our emerging markets' risk is known, because they have always being under intensive scrutiny, the risk in rich economies, is not known because they were never scrutinized.

To: carranza2 who wrote (21767)	8/30/2007 2:23:48 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 220043

C2, goats were worth $4000 in the 1980s during the get rich quick mania. Ostrich eggs were worth a LOT more than their value as a food source. If they turned to gold, the owners would have been disappointed. Don't deride the value of goats! <Overcollateralization is a joke when the rating agencies will rate a goat's ass as AAA.> But they did decline very rapidly in price when the hysteria was over. So did ostriches. So did deer. So did kiwifruit aka Chinese gooseberries. NZ$ and NZ house prices ["Which only ever go up"] will follow a similar path. Mqurice