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"How Did You Not Notice 24-Year-Olds Were Being Paid $2 Million A Year Who Clearly Didn’t Know Anything?”
Michael Lewis' scathing, aphoristic, uber-sarcastic style need no introduction. As such we will leave this brief clip from Slate, in which The Big Short author is asked how to avoid a new financial crisis, without much commentary (the answer is that under the current status quo system it is impossible to guarantee no more financial collapses, even if Glass-Steagall were to be unwound, but that is the topic for another story), suffice to point out the punchline: "future generations will wonder, “How did you not notice 24-year-olds were being paid $2 million a year who clearly didn’t know anything?” That pretty much sums it up right there.
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@MDB
You operate like rats who foul their own nests. Will you care when there is no food, water, or shelter to cover your ass in the social chaos?
The interviewer looks like he has been sucking on a tube of anal ease!
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up familiar with it." - Max Planck.
"I had no idea."
Corzine, 2011
If he knows jack shit, you must acquit!
I can think of at least a handful hundred personalities I can attribute the quote to from very recent history.
Bullish for 24 year-olds.
Snot my fault.
He is right but also rode that wave himself all the way to the bank.
aaand veered off in front of the bank on his skateboard and wrote "Liar's Poker" instead which not only cemented his career but destroyed the career of Salomon Bros boss John Gutfreund, so much so that at a lunch over a decade later JG said "that fucking book!"
We need a lot more Michael Lewis's.
A crop of brand-new orators we grew, And foolish, paltry lads who thought they knew."- Gnaeus Naevius ca. 264-201 BC
Nice ideas. None of which happened, could happen, will happen, etc. While watching water pass under the bridge, will we see the tsunami approaching?
Bruce Jennar is really smart
can I short 24-Yeras-Olds?
No. As the colored girls sing:
Don't want no short, short,
Don't want no short, short men.
Don't wanna be nubbed;)
he meant short sell, not short stroke.
Mickey Avalon - Stroke Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS2r5Oi82LY (2:46)
The Stroke- Billy Squier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8N0PGvq8A (3:37)
clarence carter strokin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gMkiOPSeA
are you not sassified??
Sass Jordan - Make You A Believer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmnbXj6E430 (5:10)
Sass Jordan - So Hard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0vMYYGjs2k (5:12)
Nubbed, I like that
Most were in their late 20's except for the inter dealer brokers.
Sell 6 year out super long calls, and hedge selling long puts as they approach 30.
Apple's iPad to the rescue: trillions of barrels of oil will be saved.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/02/us-air-force-agrees-to-purchase-9-mi...
got AAPL?
I guess the USAF never heard of laptops... say 20 years ago.
"in order to reduce the weight of pilots' bags and save fuel on flights"
WTF? It's like they were packing aboard old mainframes or something.
No, this is more lobbyist-produced BS to SELL shit.
This is BS... I wish I "didn't know anything".
Warning - I have tried to drink away the knowledge I have acquired since 2008 and all I got was a case of the shotgun shits. There is no turning back unfortunately.
Side effects of knowledge include; excessive time on ZeroHedge, chain-smoking, stock piling of food, ammo, and PMs, loss of friends and family, withdrawing life savings from banks, brokerage firms, bonds, CDs, 401k's, IRAs, depression, alcoholism, less erections, irritable bowel syndrome, and a dislike of the political process as a whole.
Trade in beer for higher quality adult beverages (brandy, scotch), give up the smokes, and temper your ZH time with internet pr0n of Japanese lesbians. Eat more fiber. IBS/shotguns gone, erections raised, depression put on hold (not cured, mind you, just on hold), and in the fullness of time, as your PM's skyrocket, transition into real assets, and enjoy the post-apocalyptic boom.
Oh, Christ, I'm almost out of Oxy.. gotta run!
Actually went primal footprint and IBS disappeared and erections came back. Shits from the beer I guess. Salut.
Many are about to replace irritable bowel syndrome with irritable bond syndrome...
+1
The good doctor speaks the truth! I think I'm suffering from those side effects too!
Yes, my girlfriend is conjering an intervention as she believes (and has accused) me to be addicted to Zero Hedge. And, it is true that a ZHer does lose friends if one tries to enlighten. So, what's left for a friendless loner ZHer? Hmmm Sniper seems reasonable.
"Hmmm Sniper seems reasonable."
Yes. Reach out and touch someone.
You gotta spend REAL time with someone, someone who "gets it." If your GF doesn't "get it," then move along; time is too short...
Best thing that happened to me was my ex leaving me (yeah, because of all this "stuff;" now, however, she "gets it"). My current wife is awesome, fearless (which is what I'd advertised for), she's why facing all this shit is worth it.
As Derrick Jensen says, it's perfectly logical that we can hold multiple, seemingly contradictory views at the same time: to believe that we're totally fucked, AND that life is wonderful.
Amen Brother Head, I never went to college, but I found zerohedge almost 3 years ago and have increased my level of knowledge of the financial sector through many long days and nights reading most of their articles and the comment threads. I typically drink bourbon on the rocks and smoke Marlboros, one after another, while riveted to my computer screen until the wee hours of the morning. But the Marlboros are starting to get to me so I bought a pack of American Spirit 100% additive free natural tobacco cigarettes today for a change of pace. I like them! Natural is always better for one's health, and all that.
Orange pack and after a week i am about to quit all together.
I quit smoking and drinking and started lipitor 4 years ago or so, and I have never been more unhealthy.
Hi i'm _____, im an alcoholic. Welcome to the club grasshopper.
hang in there its all good, change is good, we could use some,no?
.So, they pumped the price of gas, dumped credit on California, every government vehicle in the fleet is out spying, and the feminists are dragging their eunuchs around as the example to be followed. What did you expect?
Sail against the headwind of evolution, not the empire. By the time they pay, plan, and do all the other stupid crap they do, you will have changed directions many times, effectively disappearing again.
We are all stupid in that we choose to ignore data in order to remain within an event horizon. The trick is to apply imagination effectively before you go in and to be disciplined in following minimum customs as required, and always, always use your exit, regardless.
Set up your positive and negative feedback.
"The trick is to apply imagination effectively"
Hopium? Obama, is that you? </sarc>
You're NOT going to be successful until you know what the REAL problems are. Don't matter what data you use.
less worried about the 24 year olds getting 2 million than the 62 year olds paid 120 million who 'appoint and manage' them!
Let's hear it for the safety nets of Board of Directors, the Non-Executive Board, the Compliance and Risk Managers, the global Audit/Accountancy Firms, the Regulators and the steaming broke US Govt and its 200 Senate Committees of 'wise old men' ...(cough, splutter, puke)
How they (all) doing on the 100-900/1 leveraged derivatives (non) issue right now?
Goal posts (still) wide open? ..you betcha, 100% wide open and counting to yet another own goal in 3, 2, 1..
The best way to get paid 10 million is to hire two guts that you pay 5 million. Then they go and hire 2 guys each for 2 million. Then they hire 5-10 people for between 500k and 1 million. Once you have made all those hires and given that much in bonuses how could you be worth less than 10?
After the fact Glass-Steagall would likely be circumvented because of the known profits that exist without it. It would be better to start locking up the heads of these banks and the politicians they have bribed. The military should and may have the right to go after them for treason.
"It would be better to start locking up the heads of these banks and the politicians they have bribed."
OK, as long as it is just their heads - won't take up as much room.
If I could only go back in time...then again I am pretty sure that IF I were 24 and IF I got $2 million for nothing I would have already spent it on hookers and blow?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm0OtzPU0Zk
replace gangsta with banksta...
At 24, giving me $2 mill would have been a reeeeeeaaaaaalllllllllyyy bad idea.
I had figured that by that age and to have that much dealt to me, I'd have to be a rock star or a drug dealer.
Neither worked out, should have been a banksta.
You and me both. Another form of moral hazard is for those of us who actually studied real sciences, and work in real productive capacity, and safeguard the public to boot being pushed around (and owned to a large degree) by the system run by sociopaths. I suppose that explains my continued fantasy of playing drums professionally! Rock on my friend.
But it would have been sooooo much fun...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSN3JB2XTSI
If the failure of some corporations will greatly affect the state economy and the well-beings of ordinary people, these corporations shall be owned by the state and their profit (and pain) shall be shared by the whole population.
I heart Big Swinging Dicks!
believing your own bullshit is a very dangerous thing.
believing someone else's bullshit is suicide.
i hate to say it but with this latest run up in stocks (since Nov '11) it seems to be starting all over again - the positive sentiment is almost disgusting. who cares what the made-up unemployment rate is - how many people are receiving food stamps - those numbers don't lie.
The bad guys are busy trying to hold the BS together, I am betting they will until they cant, our leaders are like the 24 year olds only there not 24, thats how long they be at it, this shit is over all their heads and we are gonna crash here soon enough, I hope alot of us have our shit straight when the event arrives
Guns, foods, gold and bible. I am an atheist but just in case...
they were 24 once :) and guess where they were. well - sorry, in bernake and geithner case never actually had a job. oh - and obama also. but otherwise.....
Truth is beautiful.
newsflash: zombie banks are too big and zombified
thx.
More pain ahead.
Being a "math wiz" (at any age), does not preclude good economic and/or moral decisions when such math prowess is applied in a bubble of monetary advances for one's self. - LSL
It's like paying your attorney a retainer to make sure you are found guilty or paying your Doctor to not give you a physical and bloodwork; you are in jail and sick as a dog, it's your fault, they continue to practice, and you continue to pay.
What a world!
A down day in the US stock market? Ha! Nothing the ES futures can't handle.
Last candle was red!
http://screencast.com/t/JDiiffr5
WHO THE FUCK KEEPS BUYING THE DIPS?!!!!
Sorry for the caps. This is annoying as shit!
Your future tax dollars...
The singularity event occurred in a currency. Interesting.
Cvldob- Ya. It is now a black hole sucking all in but there is no 4th dimension purpose or destination. Just endless compression.
:)
That might be the best outcome, I am hoping I will be able to pay, paying is a foregone conclusion
But totally legitimate.
You aren't some conspiracy nut, now are you?
/Pointless sarcasm off
Central banks.
Israelhole
At 4:02PM, S&P 500's volume was 317M. Apparently, it doesn't take a whole lot of money to pump up the market from dips. The last time I have seen volume this low was March 2009 and during the Christmas holiday season.
This is like the market makers have set up a big party to lure the dumb money back in for another cleansing. They hire strippers dancing near the door with full expectation that the dummies would rush in. The dancers have already stripped down to their bras and panties but the dummies refuse to join the party. The market makers must be thinking that if they allow the strippers to take it all off, DOW over 14,000, the onlookers would think there is nothing left to see or gain. That is why the strippers are teasing the onlookers with the bras half off and on and off, DOW < 13,000 and > 13,000 ..........
The machines have no emotion because they have no soul. Only naked calls cause their hard drives to heat up.
1370 on the S&P, thats the predicted breakpoint right,looks like a fight, kinda ties in to drive PMs lower,really shake some faith, how strong are they, I am not even tired. I think it cant and they cant go the rounds, maybe I am to vested and emotional, but I am gonna walk the walk I have been, to win I gotta have reality on my side or opps I FU again.
1370 on the S&P, thats the predicted breakpoint right,looks like a fight, kinda ties in to drive PMs lower,really shake some faith, how strong are they, I am not even tired. I think it cant and they cant go the rounds, maybe I am to vested and emotional, but I am gonna walk the walk I have been, to win I gotta have reality on my side or opps I FU again.
2 million a year.... When I was 24 I had a bit more than 200k in the bank and I thought I had it made back than.... 2 million a year.... What did I do wrong?
kept your soul?
At 24 I was close to broke, but 5 years later I had 50k. that staked me for the first time I felt like I had something.
At 24 I was traveking around with no money, working under the table at various jobs for my food, pot and beer, not necessarily in that order.
I was a young hippie back then. Once you pass thirty society call yosu a bum for doing the same thing.
"trust me, to the pros it's nothing. They are the smartest, savviest traders out there and they honestly don't care what you think"
MDB
The only pro you know is your mum, and she's been working all your life to make a fraction of that money.
Let's be honest MDB, you're a hot dog vendor on Wall St.
I clearly took the wrong path, Captain of my own Ship and decider of my fate in Commerce etc al (Trucking)
It would be cheaper for me to be paid 300,000 and know nothing in the same job that they got those so called 24 year olds in. Who knows I might even turn a buck.
Hell that is 6 seasoned people you can pay, bonuses not necessary or welcome.
Oh, Bullion and ASE instead of direct deposit. Thank you.
The "fix" for this is even simpler than separation of propritory trading. Simply make the officers of the trading firm and bank personally liable for losses if the bank goes belly up.
you are so old school.
old school, yeah for sure
they already belong in jail so its not that simple,breaking them up and making their business define is very important
In the future when it takes $2 Trillion to buy a loaf of bread they will wonder how they got by on $2 Million a year.
Oh wow, another smart person with all the answers.
To big to fail should be outlawed, Yes I thought that since the 90s.
But also corporations: Walmart, Intel, MS, Home Depot, Phone companies, and the Fed government.
Blame the victims as usual. 24 year old males are doing worse as a whole, relative to other demographics, than almost any other time period in American history. They are more likely to be in debt, more likely to be unemployed, and more likely to be in jail *than any other demographic*. For the first time in American history, females 20-29 have a higher employment rate and higher net worth than males in this age group.
There have always been 24 year olds making $2 million. There are in fact fewer today, adjusted for inflation, than other time periods. It is a log bell curve and the demographic as a whole is shifted left.
But keep spinning it however you want, and blame it on the victim as always.
...but that point wasn't central to the main point of the clip. He was being faceious about the 24 yr. olds just to make the more impotant point about allowing things to get out of hand by giving too much power and money to people and companies (big banks) that were not allowed to fail.
However. I do recognize the sad state of affairs for that age group having 4 kids between 21-27
That explains the R/E implosion.
"How Did You Not Notice 24-Year-Olds Were Being Paid $2 Million A Year Who Clearly Didn’t Know Anything?”When I worked in an I-Bank, I learned that the less I worked so that I could talk up how much I was working, the bigger my bonus became.
Didn't know anything?
They knew how to get the bloody job!
Lewis describes how he did essentially the same thing in Liar's Poker.
So much has been lost due to the fraud, outsourcing, so on and so forth, Glass-Steagall isn't enough to turn things around.
It IS however a vital aspect of the process. It is step A (from whenever the correct people are in place to pass it...which is Step 0). After the crap is removed there isn't enough credit in the system to get it going again. Thus you'll need to emit credit [step B](not borrowed from the Federal Reserve) for wealth creating (and thus needs sustaining) projects.
Glass-Steagall is the ruleset that the current monetary system must return to, and what a freshly revamped credit system can maintain. But the part where we go from the entities we have now not set up around Glass-Steagall to entities that survive after the Glass-Steagall principle standard is applied will crush the fraud and the weak. Thus a lot will be gutted, but it's the part of the economy that isn't needed.
With the fraudulent crap gone and new legitimate credit emitted (for actual real projects, not fluff), then the physical economy will survive and the well being of the people will too. It'll be tough, but survivable. When people talk about austerity, this is what they should really mean. Because it'll be tough, but it won't be asinine cut spending on X by Y for no other reason but to pay down debt, much of which is fraud, and most was squandered on non-capital endeavors (let alone a real project like fusion or space). But the focus needs to be on necessities and capital investment. Somehow I think apple will still be around and flogging iPad 8 (for those that it matters to).
Impeach Obama (now, any scumbag in office that may replace him)
Glass-Steagall
American Credit System
It always seemed odd that one could buy a CDS on an extremely large (perhaps formerly) AAA-rated entity from a much smaller, less highly rated entity, and still expect to be paid in full on the CDS if the AAA-rated entity defaulted. Apparently, in the CDS world, financial cataclysms happen in a vacuum. For example, if the Japanese Government, with its admitted bazillion yen in debt denominated in a currency it can print, defaulted, anyone holding a CDS written by Barclays could be certain of getting paid, as the impact and damage if a $5 trillion economy loses its government would be confined and the damage limited. Even Kyle Bass believes that one.
And a note to Michael Lewis....perhaps it has been a long time since you were 24 years old, but in case you have forgotten, the average 24 year old, whether he is a $2 million a year banker or an indebted student pulling vente mocha lattes out of an Italian-made espresso machine, knows everything.
Yeah but 55 year olds, whether they are unemployed and have been for years, or are VPs at banks, are humble and always consider the possibilties that what they are doing, and the life they are living, is fine.
Who built this shitshow of an economy? What generation used the Fiat Ponzi to its fullest? The 24 year olds? Or is this shitshow build on the backs of the Greatest Gen and the Boomers?
Old people are so full of shit it makes me sick.
Reading your comments for about two years now, one might be forgiven for thinking most everything makes you sick.
One thing that used to irritate me, but now only makes me feel some combination of amusement and pity, are the new experts who, via their "research" carried out not from direct experience, but rather from sitting behind their internet connection, have decided they know how the world really works. I admit to not knowing everything, but there are things I know extremely well from direct experience (as a reformed Bilderberger with a widely varied career, and friends who remain in that subset often called "Illuminati). Every time I scroll through the comments on a ZH article I see all sorts of utter nonsense that prove to me the writer is at best painfully naive and at worst a complete loon. I used to feel some desire to point out errors and fallacies, but now realize that those who believe need to believe what they believe for reasons owing to some peculiarities of character. There is thus no need to spoil their fantasy of how the world works, as it undoubtedly gives them some psychic pleasure or might even rationalize and justify their own unhappiness. I suspect any attempt to do so would be pointless anyway. People prefer structure, even if it is malevolent, rather than face the possibility of a random Universe with nobody and no thing having complete control.
ZH, after its initial run as a mostly finance site, became a magnet for these types, driving much of the original flock (including many ZH personnel, it seems) into the shadows or permanent exile. The prevailing dogma now is 'guns, gold, goulash (freeze dried) and Ron Paul', with the only freedom of choice allowed is that one may decide to hate the Rockefellers more than the Rothschilds, love goild more than silver, or vice versa to both. It is only because Tyler does such a robust job of gathering and analyzing that some of the old crowd remains.
As for average age in the financial industry (another of your posts in this thread), people like Art Cashin and John Bogle skew the average. On the trading floors, anybody much over 35 is a dinosaur. Analysts might be slightly older, and pure buy side types, too, but in the IBs and at the HFs, they still don't have that daily shaving thing down yet.
Management---many of whom are late 30s and early 40s, though the more infamous ones are 50-55 (Dimon, Blankfein)---made a whole lot of mistakes (in addition to the shameless reliance on money politics). Many did not have the mathematics background to understand the creations of the youthful financial engineering types, nor did they have the knowledge to appreciate the risk management algos (which were faulty from the get-go and almost all pirated from a single original developer). Some chiefs were even absent, like the bridge-playing Jimmy Cayne.
Old people made their mistakes, just as all people always have done. The world was always on the path on which it ended up. There were never any Golden Ages, but rather, all roads were leading to where we are now. We always had booms and busts, pre-Fed, post-Fed, fiat or specie, and always will. "Progress" has merely made us all interconnected so that one person's mistake becomes everybody's problem. John Dunne is now spot on correct.
As the old folks pass on, the young will make their own mistakes and screw-ups, and their spawn will complain and view them as just as foolish and unaware, then they will do the same. This will continue until time ends. A few people will become introspective before their time is up, but most will not. Everybody is playing this game for the first, and only, time...well, except for the Buddhists and Hindus and Shirley MacLaine, who apparently get multiple Mulligans.
What makes Michael Lewis so likeable to many people is that he knows all this and knows it is imprinted into the DNA of the species. He has decided that the only thing one can do is try to help by pointing it out with a sense of humor. His Boomerang, as well as his Big Short are educational but also entertaining in a way that takes the edge off.
Chindit, a few comments on your comment.
"I admit to not knowing everything, but there are things I know extremely well from direct experience (as a reformed Bilderberger with a widely varied career, and friends who remain in that subset often called "Illuminati). Every time I scroll through the comments on a ZH article I see all sorts of utter nonsense that prove to me the writer is at best painfully naive and at worst a complete loon. I used to feel some desire to point out errors and fallacies, but now realize that those who believe need to believe what they believe for reasons owing to some peculiarities of character. There is thus no need to spoil their fantasy of how the world works, as it undoubtedly gives them some psychic pleasure or might even rationalize and justify their own unhappiness. I suspect any attempt to do so would be pointless anyway."
Disagree. ZH has grown in popularity and 'circulation', and that means that the small, select group of experts who used to comment here has swelled to include naives, dummies, noobs, the mob, and the great unwashed. This is a GOOD thing! How will POSITIVE change come, and include the grassroots, if the grassroots is not here and at least trying to become informed? How is preaching to the choir (which it was, in the old days) of benefit, really? I can't speak for Tyler Durden but I believe the original Fight Club was first and foremost a call for change. This cannot happen when there is just a small, elite group of illuminati :-) reading and commenting. The comments may be far less quality, but their quantity is encouraging to me, as long as the reporting itself stays good.
I also have been around since the beginning. (For some reason my profile only lists 2 1/2 years - don't know how or why it got reset, but I was among the first to register here, on the first day ZH moved from the old blog site.) I welcome this degradation in the comments, since it means more 'peasant' education. (Including my own!)
"People prefer structure, even if it is malevolent, rather than face the possibility of a random Universe with nobody and no thing having complete control."
Agree 100%. And I agree that this demand for 'structure' is pious fantasy.
"ZH, after its initial run as a mostly finance site, became a magnet for these types, driving much of the original flock (including many ZH personnel, it seems) into the shadows or permanent exile. The prevailing dogma now is 'guns, gold, goulash (freeze dried) and Ron Paul', with the only freedom of choice allowed is that one may decide to hate the Rockefellers more than the Rothschilds, love goild more than silver, or vice versa to both. It is only because Tyler does such a robust job of gathering and analyzing that some of the old crowd remains."
I would argue that these types are a product of these times, and that the crowd will grow as the discontent of the Greatest Depression grows with us. I too applaud the Tylers' sterling job of getting the story out first, and getting it relatively whole. But the dogma in the comments, I would suggest, is no more or less than the power of a large crowd's majority opinion. But you still have freedom of voice, we each do, even if you (or I) are the only voice of sanity in a large crowd of voices all saying something misguided. I suggest that would make your (dissenting?) voice all the more important.
"I used to feel some desire to point out errors and fallacies, but now realize that those who believe need to believe what they believe..."
I urge the point that for every commenter here, there are ten silent 'lurkers' who are reading and thinking. Not all of us want to hear only from the huge crowd of 24-year-olds.
I know, I'm such a populist, :-) but I feel compelled to reply because yours is one of the latest in a long string of 'old-timer' laments about how the comments are now so numerous and uninformed. Granted, this, but is it really a bad thing? More difficult for you, maybe, but. I suggest that those of you with much to contribute should do so, now more than ever, BECAUSE there are so many more here who desperately need the benefit of your perspective and experience. And in the midst of the noise and confusion, there are some new faces with wonderful insight here and there who also have a lot to teach. ZH is as popular as it is because so many of us thirst for REAL education. Of course there is no need to waste your time arguing with morons. But to say what you think, even if in only a single comment, this could be invaluable to many of us, sifting through the bloody tiresome posts of those who insist on hollering "Bullish, bitchez!" at the top of every article. And one good conversation on, say, whether the euro's gold support makes it a better bet than USD, is worth a great deal for those of us who save some files. :-)
I miss Cheeky. I miss Chumba. (How many here actually know where "Gold, bitches!" comes from, and what it means?) I miss Gordon Gekko. I miss Rusty and SWRichmond. I miss Marla! I hope you will not just fade away too, discouraged that ZH isn't just a playground for the happy few, the financially educated elite, anymore.
There's the old saw about changing what can and needs to be changed, and accepting that which might need to be changed, but cannot be. As I have written far too many times, there are real problems we face that are right out there in the open, but far too many windmills the vocal majority wants to fight instead. I accept that I have had the opportunity for a wider range of experience in life than many, but so many of the ghosts people here chase are on the face of it so absurd as to be believed only by those who---for lack of a better or more descriptive term---are batshit crazy. The internet has given them a place to congregate, whereas in the past they wandered the streets aimlessly swearing at the demons in their head. The silent lurkers here, who come for Tyler's analysis and insight, know very well who the loons amongst the posters are. Now the "bad chemical" crowd has a support group in the form of this site, which is all well and good for a compassionate society, but can greatly diminish the message and the power of a site like Zerohedge. It can be ridiculed by association, which might well defeat its purpose.
Tyler does what few others seem capable of doing, and fewer still have the stamina he (they) have shown for a few years now. What a shame that this expertise and effort go to waste.
The bat-shit crazy crowd is frustrating, but I would like to think that calm clear presentation of truth prevails over crazy any day. Maybe it doesn't.
The bigger issue is the seething rage and hatred so potent that it acts like a poison and casts a unsettling pale over everything. I can understand being angry, but I also firmly believe that if you don't work past it, it's like cancer.
You can't reason with hate.
One major side is left out: debunking reality is very hard. Especially for US citizens who thrive in various ways from being disconnected from reality.
Reality is an acquired taste.
How could it be otherwise for US citizens?
Reality is not an acquired taste. Reality is.
It was useless to illustrate my point though by displaying the expected behaviour.
Because reality is. It does not required to be told or shown to be.
Dear Chin,
Only about 10% of the population, and that is a rather generous estimate, are informed at any given moment in history. And those people backed by secret societies and financial good ol' boy networks in every section of life and the economy do the rest of us favors by creating a set of laws and a financial and monetary system skewed in their favor and advocating "enlightened self-interest."
The working papers are posted all over the Internet: Federal Reserve, BIS, UN, UBS, and so on. The Uniform Commercial Code is posted at Cornell Law.
The people know that life is unpredictable and cannot be controlled, but do you? Enlightened self-interest is an oxymoron. All the constructs of world Utopia will fall apart, since they are unsustainable and anathema to the aspirations of freedom so deeply ingrained in man.
Welcome to the collapse. You say you are a reformed Bilderberger. Did you finally realize that you and your kin might eat dirt just like other mortals?
It doesn't matter whether 10% of the people are evil or 10% of our individual actions are evil, human DNA remains the same flawed DNA.
It doesn't matter whether 10% of the people are informed or individuals are informed 10% of the time, history goes on.
Way back when at age 24 and a young police officer in Baltimore I can attest to you the fact I did not know shit from Shinola. Today, at age 54, after the many years of education,OJT, and research at the National Archives I find I know shit from Shinola.
In my younger days I enjoyed martial arts, Tae Kwon Do and Tomiki Aikido. I preferred the Aikido. What has stuck with me was the saying that was posted on the dojo wall by my sensei's teacher: To properly learn a technique you must do it 10,000 times. The meaning - Aikido is a life long learning experience, hence the "not knowing shit from Shinola"... still learning chin.
Simply stated, highly paid uneducated role models are used to move the agenda forward. The Propaganda role is paid by working US taxpayers.
(i) before (e) except after C. As in, see you in iMart Bitchez. We all know how that largess Businees Model" is working out.
Straight from anti ETF central!
Those who know not, and know not that they know not; they are fools, shun them.
I forget where I first read that. Sounds like they knew about those 24 year olds though.
You are profiled. Baseball?
You guys make me vomit. All of you have no balls, are lazy as hell and can't accept the real eventual outcome. I can. I can live in a dumpster, corn field, sewer junction box or under a bridge if I have to. With cash. These electronic systems are fucking us. You, as yet, still cannot believe how badly. But the banks already know. And we are the fucked. They have the massive money power, backed by the FED, to make money at the press of the enter key.
The only way to fight this omniscient wave of crooks and propubescent money lechers is take away the FRN. How? For us common folk, don't put money in banks, by electronic or walk in manner. Take your check and cash it at the local Indian owned liquor store. Pay cash for everything. Don't buy anything with plastic debit, credit or by internet or face to face at Wal Mart, etc... Take the cash out of the system. Take all of it. Cut up the credit cards. Cash out your 401 and fund accounts. That's your real vote!
These cocksuckers are borrowing at 5/10ths of 1% from the fed overnight. Fuck them! Do even better and don't spend anything on anything but absolute essentials. Only essentials. See what happens in three months if the gist of the matter gets flow to the economy. Call off work because "you don't feel like showing up". Who says you can't? Fuck them! Why should anyone work for $8.00 an hour part time for a 13 billion dollar company. For the stockholders? For the extra $100 bucks a week? For the fucking pride of being employed?
If it weren't for us......... these cocksuckers wouldn't even exist. Show them who's the boss.
Play thier game, but play it backwards. Give it up and show them who can really take the heat. Unless you're a balless cocksucker.
And if somebody is pounding on the door, tell them in a loud and proud voice to "GO FUCK THEMSELVES!"
I like you! Been there done that! It's not what you do that defines you. It's how you do that thing called living " in between".
Winners are, and always will be able to use adversity to their advantage! WITH INTEGRITY!
JPMorgan's chief makes 4.5 times the median for CEOs. The median pay for journalists? Just $31,900.
http://money.msn.com/investing/dollar42m-ceo-journalists-are-overpaid
Fuck cronyism.
Fuck bolshevism.
That is all.
Lewis says in reference to Wall St. firms & CDS, "they were gambling with their own money"
That is total horsecrap - they were & are gambling with other people's money, certainly not putting their's at risk...
And seeing Weisberg & Lewis lightheartedly laugh about it...they obviously believe it isn't their money that is at risk...
And Lewis is supposed to be what again?
The headline of this piece, "How did you not notice 24 year olds were being paid $2 million who clearly didn't know anything".....perfectly describes main stream media 'stars and starlets.' There is not a more worthless bunch of human beings than the grads of Hairspray 101, and yet they actually enjoy a great deal of undeserved, unearned attention for what they 'report.' The more I see of anchors, anchorettes, analysts on cable talk shows and especially business networks, including Fox, CTV and CNBC, the more I need to go out in the backyard and puke. Now I know why the commies put reporters near the top of the list when they decide who to eliminate during the grand takeover....not because they are troublesome, but because they make you puke.
You are not alone.... No sir. Not alone with this.
A long time ago while riding the London Underground Subway for the first time as a teenager who knows NOTHING, I mean N. O. T.I. N.G. and learning awful fast by the hour what it takes to work with the English.
I enjoyed the experience... except for one massive difference between Europe and America.
Page two of the national news paper on par with NYT, Wash Post etc had a completely topless Female advertising a beauty product in one full page.
My family had a fit around me while I basically ruined my shorts right there and then on the entire stinking tube train. I could not believe it. Never in a million years.
That was decades ago.
Now I see these young uns coming out getting skimpier and skimpier while the Males are becoming.... Beta Males who dont know what they want (I consider myself Alpha Wolf unless with another person who demands the same respect) and frankly the entire Media, advertising, marketing and Broadcast industries are feasting on the rotted corpse of our Nation and deserve to be eliminated on the spot as we used to do with Coyotes.
There was a old and good Mick Jagger movie intro that featured signs saying 800- suicides 24/7. I laughed then...
I am not laughing now.
you mean l. silver man can buy insurance against destroying his
tower leases and collect when he arranges the demolition?
and the mta or port authority has no claim and will finance the reconstruction?
no way dude, that can't be true. tax and fee/toll payer would never tolerate. ?
just pay off the local officials and it all works? no way!
there must be a law against it. lobbyists would never permit such
abuse and stealing of public funds. never mind the blood lust and
flesh servitude and baby eating ( post modern ). 9/11 in a nut shell.
the mills collected by the know nothings correlated
well with the looting of the senile pensioners but
correlation does not beget causation luv.
That guy is a fucking idiot, period.
Well, that guy knew enough of the system to get paid $2M.
Funny to see that youth should disqualify.
Usually, US citizens have that "dont touch the rich" attitude but for that young man, apparently, well, suddenly, no pop.
If you know nothing, you get $2 million. If everything you know is wrong, you get $200 million.
What holds you back is knowing inside that you are not worth it ... if you actually believe you are worth $200m, you become one with it. I was listening the other day to a top PE guy telling a group why he gets a carried interest, why he deserves it, and why, because of the "risk" that he has in play [yeah, so what if it is mostly other people's money at risk?] that justiifies why it should only be taxed at the cap gains rate rather than at income rates like the average joe would experience if their deferred income was paid in company stock.
The same old story about the worst of all evils, you have named the cds! the same old populist crap: the insurance on your neighbour's house! unacceptable!
Wrong! sometimes you need an insurance on your neighbour's house! If your neighbour's house is being aboandoned and is being squated by junkies, eventually your own house is going to lose value. You do need an insurance
This doesn't make any sense. Your hypothetical insurance policy would be against depreciation in value of your own asset, so it would be an insurance policy on your house. It most jurisdictions, you wouldn't be able to take out a policy on your neighbour's house because there are sound and obvious policy justifications for a doctrine of insurable interest.
Just occasionally, things actually are almost as straightforward as they seem.
CDSs aren't necessarily the problem. it's more a case, if anything, those going long naked CDS.
On the flip-side, I think any run-of-the-mill middle-school kid would be preferable to a university-corrupted adult to: act as a judge for many crimes; to run foreign policy; to interpret my last will... Once the humanities departments get hold of the 24 year olds, they are unable to think - and that's where we are.
A scenario how things might start to unfold very soon with a critical poiint in May 2012 (EUR down, USDx up, Silver UP, DJIA UP, GOLD steady:
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2626&p=36724#p36724
$2 million? Why not $4 million?...or $8 million?
"After all, it's not even my money....it's the clients money......"
When I first saw the headline I figured it must be an article on pro basketball, football or baseball players (or their coaches). Or some Hollywood types. Or some cable tv commentators. There were just so many morons who get paid well to choose from.
So the public gets to weigh in on the "fairness" of everyone elses compensation. Looking forward to the federal legislation which determines the "value" of ones service and setting pay levels (it is consistent with the Obamacare philosophy).
Should Michael Lewis make $2 million? I don't think so, but I do not care or begrudge him nor leading a crusade to highlight and reverse such. How does he know how much other people should get paid? Pretty conceited. Compensation is not the problem in banking -- it is government guarantees (deposits, bailouts, etc) that sets up the environment for uneconomic decisons. Get rid of the government provided moral hazards and let people get paid whatever they can get. Only the employee and the shareholders should have a say on compensation.
Life is not "fair" -- but I do not want the federal govt or Michael Lewis setting "fair" compensation.
Govt morons "clearly don't know anything" regardless of what they get paid.
It's nice to be able to add Michael Lewis to the list of people who agree with me that CDS need to go bye-bye, forever. They are a cancer. Cut them out, wipe them out, incinerate them.
Trying to figure out why you misinterpret what he says in the interview. He clearly says that the way to prevent another crisis is to break up the banks and re-impose Glass-Steagall-like separations. He also clearly makes a case for regulatory oversight of financial market innovations, something a lot of contributors on this website and ZH favorite Ron Paul are against.
He is wrong about one thing, though. The big banks, even in their current mammoth proportions, are NOT too big to fail. They could and should be allowed to fail. Summoning the political courage to effectively and efficiently and fairly deal with that failure was the challenge the captured punks in Washington failed at. BUT THEY COULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO FAIL. Saying otherwise is perpetuating the big lie.
They made money. They will lose money.
They just had the wrong teachers.