Securitize This
By: Jim Macklin
Secure Document Research
In a recent article published, a staggering statistic was announced about the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States. Let me preface this by stating that twenty years ago, the financial services industry only contributed 16% of the GDP, while manufacturing, goods and services comprised the bulk of the GDP for the U.S. Meaning that goods were being manufactured, services were rendered and the economy is flourishing because of work product that actually produces something that is consumed, or services that are performed to promote the sale of goods. When money moves through the system, the system is healthy and grows. Conversely, when the system is stagnant and money stalls, the system tries to bury its head and consumers suffer all forms of malady.
Fast forward to today’s reality. The financial services industry now contributes 48% of our nations’ total GDP! Nearly half of what we are “worth” as a nation is derived from an intangible, non-product industry. Let’s examine the cause and effect of this crippling statistic. When Banks and lenders like Washington Mutual, World Savings, Countrywide and their ilk began using Wall St. profits from the sale of AAA rated mortgage-backed securities, then allegedly pooled them into REMIC Trust entities for reporting purposes, a dragon was released with an insatiable appetite for more, more, more.
Guys like Mozillo, Dimon, Bernanke, Paulson, and Fuld, along with a cavalcade of Goldman Sachs alumnus, became the belles of the ball. Men with little to no real business experience suddenly were thrust into policy making positions and these guys were self-convincing economists and captains of their “industry”. Not one of these quasi-businessmen had any idea what it meant to provide a tangible product or service to the average American, yet wielded immense power at the state and Congressional level.
Now consider what was being taught at the university level in our schools. A system of fraud was being espoused as the new manner in which we would do “business”. Professor William Black of UMKC, and White Collar Crime specialist for the Administration, labeled the new system of accounting treatments as “control fraud”. This is where the fraudulent practices are crafted at the top and anyone who wants to make a living can either participate or starve. (See my next article on control fraud).
When half of our entire economy relies on a monetary policy that rewards thieves with riches and prosecutorial immunity, the global effect is catastrophic, to put it mildly. There is a sense of distrust of the financial services industry that percolates at the surface of every cocktail party in this country. Why is the voting public not outraged enough to oust, publicly, any and all participants in this organized cartel? Because of fear of the unknown. The upper crust has socially engineered us to “need” ipods and mobile devices more than meat and potatoes, innovative farming methods, bridges that are safe to drive over and generally goods and services that truly matter. GET OVER YOURSELVES!!! When the rubber meets the road, we have succumbed to our own petty desires instead of striving to be better at science and math.
Students now flock to business and finance degrees instead of real world applications because the real world, that has been engineered by the few, does not reward the intelligent or the creative…unless you can create a derivative cubed with multiple trust hedges that are offshore to avoid unnecessary tax treatments. Taxes are for the idiots that pay them while the super-rich enjoy virtually tax free billions.
So, turn off your mobile linked, high definition, interactive infused stun gun that you worship and go make something that we can eat, drink or sleep under. You have entertained yourself to death… which is exactly what was intended for you. You wanted it that way, right?
Stay tuned.