by @anarchyroll
7/26/2014
If you don’t know who Warren Buffett is, all you need to know is that he’s the greatest living investor in the history of the American stock market(s). In the world of finance he’s the Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, and Babe Ruth. He is the man and has nothing resembling an equal.
Warren Buffett has also become the conscience of the finance sector the American economy.
This is evidenced by his refusal to put his wealth of wealth into commercial securities and derivatives. Whereas all other big banks, hedge funds, and trading houses can’t get enough of either.
In a recent issues of TIME magazine, Buffett called all commercial securities “weapons of mass destruction.”
Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and derivatives were two primary instruments in the 2008 global economic meltdown, the worst economic collapse since The Great Depression.
Warren Buffett invests the old-fashioned way, when investing was investing. CMBS and derivatives are the tools that have turned Wall Street into a casino on steroids. CMBS and derivatives are the dice, the global economy is the table, the chips that big banks and hedge funds are playing with are the liquid assets of the global economy. Are the craps and gambling metaphors coming across clearly enough?
After all of the pain and devastation that derivatives trading has done to the global economy, there is certainly a strong case to be made that they should be done away with completely. But in the spirit of baby steps and pragmatism, how about we start with at least putting some kind, any kind of regulation on derivatives trading?
If commercial securities and derivatives aren’t good enough for the greatest living investor in America, perhaps it is best that we all steer clear of them. If someone with literally billions of dollars to burn doesn’t want to touch them, why would any person dependent on a robust 401k to be able to retire at 65 want their limited assets intertwined with the same investment instruments that collapsed the global economy barely a half decade ago?
Anarchy Journal Constitutional 