Comments on: Links 2/23/08 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/02/links-22308.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:56:24 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dave Raithel http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/02/links-22308.html#comment-4385 Dave Raithel Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:48:00 +0000 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/02/links-22308/#comment-4385 Mr. Smith, re the Ignatius article: Just when I thought I was starting to get a grasp of things in your world, your observation that it "suggests how far behind the public at large may be in understanding our financial woes" deflates my confidence. I guess there is one one clearly disputable factual assertion re the Sovereign Wealth Funds, as I recall a post here that the SWFs are declining to keep bailing. But what, exactly, is incorrect about his general description of the state of finance capital and how it has come to be in it? As I read through the article, I was feeling somewhat elated that I knew about what he was writing, I'd been learning about it here.<br/><br/>Are you referring to his point that "The public, fortunately, doesn't understand how bad the situation is. If it did, we might have a real panic on our hands." That may cynical, but cynics are often unblinking at reality. Writing as a member of the public, the layity relative to the financiers, I confess that I was only obliquely aware that something was afoot - that Friedman froth testimony some summers back; that Cramer guy yelling at the TV camera. But surely it is not necessary for one to comprehend the most technical details of tranches or the most arcane procedures of ARS auctions to understand what in general is going wrong, anymore than it is necessary to be a nuclear physicist to grasp how nuclear weapons do their damage and why they are not good for children and other living things...or is it?<br/><br/>What ought he to have written for those of us mostly wanting to think clearly as citizens who bother to vote? Mr. Smith, re the Ignatius article: Just when I thought I was starting to get a grasp of things in your world, your observation that it “suggests how far behind the public at large may be in understanding our financial woes” deflates my confidence. I guess there is one one clearly disputable factual assertion re the Sovereign Wealth Funds, as I recall a post here that the SWFs are declining to keep bailing. But what, exactly, is incorrect about his general description of the state of finance capital and how it has come to be in it? As I read through the article, I was feeling somewhat elated that I knew about what he was writing, I’d been learning about it here.

Are you referring to his point that “The public, fortunately, doesn’t understand how bad the situation is. If it did, we might have a real panic on our hands.” That may cynical, but cynics are often unblinking at reality. Writing as a member of the public, the layity relative to the financiers, I confess that I was only obliquely aware that something was afoot – that Friedman froth testimony some summers back; that Cramer guy yelling at the TV camera. But surely it is not necessary for one to comprehend the most technical details of tranches or the most arcane procedures of ARS auctions to understand what in general is going wrong, anymore than it is necessary to be a nuclear physicist to grasp how nuclear weapons do their damage and why they are not good for children and other living things…or is it?

What ought he to have written for those of us mostly wanting to think clearly as citizens who bother to vote?

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