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| Greek Finance: Setting The Standard ! |
The fifth century (B.C.) Greeks had a name for it – sophistry.
Sophists were a loosely knit group of ancient philosophers who earned their livelihood championing causes supported by subtle logic, apparently correct in form; but, which clearly proved to be false when subjected to careful, impartial consideration. They were paid "to hedge" with the truth.
Perhaps all that sounds innocent enough, but the catch was that the Sophists clearly understood the duplicity of their arguments. These guys were nobody's fools! Sophistry involved the shameless deception and exploitation of the populace in the blatant pursuit of personal gain.
Modern day Sophists are quite abundant. We call them "hired guns", demagogues, lobbyists, and charlatans; but the unprincipled tools of the trade remain the same: old-fashioned trickery, exaggeration, half-truths, and shameless hypocrisy.
If you would like a brief refresher on the art of
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| According to the Comment Letters NCUA is... ! |
Derivatives do not reduce risk as proclaimed by advocates and the NCUA.
For Four Reasons
- 1. Risk can not be eliminated by derivatives; risk can only be transferred for a period of time.
- 2. Well-managed companies use derivatives to maximize the acceptable level of risk desired on their balance sheets - not to minimize the level of risk.
- 3. Derivatives are rarely a perfectly matched offset to the underlying risk and contain an entirely subjective bet as to the future direction of and degree/rate of change in the risk exposure.
- 4. Serve to perpetuate the continued existence of unsound financial instruments in the marketplace.
- NCUA has rightfully resisted derivatives in the past.
WHY RISK IT NOW?
6 comments:
Ask self help why they haven't blown up from use of derivatives....and why thousands of banks haven't...and why navy and Eastman and digital and.....
Seems that you, like so many sophists, conveniently - or is it purposefully - overlook the fact that the Country was just brought to its knees by banks that all did use derivatives...
....or has the last 5 years just been a harsh joke on the rest of us?
And, oh yes, you did forget to mention THE CORPORATES - what a convenient oversight - "... exaggeration, half-truths, and shameless hypocrisy."
... or is yours a comment "...fueled seemingly by self-interest?"
Derivatives are like FREE SEX! Sounds better than the actual fact!
Self Help, Navy, Eastman and Digital may be having fun at the party, but the question really is who pays the bill?
The Corporates you say - didn't you read the recent NCUA op ed piece clarifying the agency's role in that fiasco? Thank goodness NCUA dropped in from the sky to save the Corporate system and CUs nationwide.
Just think how may of those billions CU members could have been saved if only the agency had begun closely supervising, homogenizing, and micromanaging the Corporates immediately after the CapCorp failure!
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