It's a powerful vid.  Worth sharing widely.

Sounds a lot like a promo for governmental employment ... a how to sort of thing, so sad.

I heard about this video today while listening to Rush Limbaugh. He was impressed by it.

Now, after seeing it, I can understand why.

America is in freefall every which way.

Just got this in my email box today.

somewhere right around 2:50

"i'd devise fictitious products like _______ and trade them in imaginary markets"

can't quite hear what the product is but it sounds much more like carbon something than it does synthetic cdos.  i guess that's probably because synthetic cdos trade in an unimaginably under-regulated market.

the very thing i'd advocate if i wanted america to fail.

Pretty sure it is "carbon credits"... which is what I heard the 1st time through, and the second time to verify.

Very thin reed (CDO's) to tie your flag to, there, kb.

well there ya go.

It kind of does at that.

That video is all over the web now.  I must have had half my family send me a link to it.

i gotta confess i've no personal experience in speculative markets since mid-1982 when i optioned 100 oz of platinum at a time when spot platinum was very close to that of gold--both having declined a considerable amount during the previous couple months.  i held a 6 month option and needed only a $45 increase by the first market day of 1983 to profit. Unfortunately it didn't happen and when my broker told me he could extend the option for 3 months at a very reasonable fee, i told him forget it.  for the next three weeks, platinum rose a full $25 limit each and every day.  

clearly the entire fiasco (altho the loss reduced my tax debt) resulted from my poor timing and poorer judgment; it was a fair a deal as possible even if my broker was also engaged in proprietary trades.  there was an actual physical commodity with a value determined by real market demand (or lack thereof).

claiming that carbon credit trades--which are ultimately subject to laws of supply and demand as well--are imaginary devices capable of bringing down america's economy absent any supporting evidence yet totally ignoring toxic synthetic cdo trading, which are as tangible as smoke and nearly caused america to fail (and may still do so) is worse than stupidity. 

the people who made that piece of propaganda are dangerous-and although i wholeheartedly support their right to express themselves no matter how much havoc they wreak-to the point of deserving receiving an lyndon larouche-josef goebbels award and hereafter be compelled to prominently display it at the beginning and end of their productions.

freemarketamerica.org my ass.

Not sure I ken your point, kb.  You saying we should adopt a really really bad idea because, hey, the last really bad idea was horrible but didn't kill us?  Also, last I checked, freemarketamerica.org wasn't the government, so a Goebbels Award would seem to be undeserved.

i wasn't defending, much less supporting carbon credit swaps. ridiculously useless for any purpose--slime bait comes first to mind despite   an overall lack of interest demonstrated by so many truly despicable, rabidly aggressive flimflamming parasitic investment buncos.  whooops. i seem unable to avoid that lil faux pas. 

no matter how idiotically conceived or distastefully implemented, carbon credit swaps might only be fairly characterized as "really, really bad" by comparison to synthetic cdos in a universe in which out-and-out chicanery, degenerate greed, a total lack of empathy and full-on rabid weasel sociopathy were held in highest regard. For instance the very one inhabited by creators of and participants in "If I Wanted etc" (the concept and many of the main points of which appear to have been lifted in large part  from an original piece authored by one paul harvey). 

page 2!  friends..if you're as fecaly impacted as those responsible for "If I Wanted" not even the good folks at serutan are going to be able to help you out

if those same people--and/or those who find their video so compelling--really wanted to help prevent america from failing and one of their main concerns was moles subverting america's financial systems, does it make any sense for them to totally overlook one of this country's 4 or 5 most devastating crises to present instead egregiously inaccurate scenarios to insinuate that catastrophe is somehow equivalent to a admittedly flawed--but so far innocuous at very worst--run-of-the-mill boondoggle?

as to the goebbels/larouche awards, larouche has spent most of his life proving government has no monopoly on propaganda. i can understand how nominating freeamericanmarkets.org might be considered insulting. given access to today's technology, goebbels and riefenstahl woulda really energized this video's target audience by adding hordes of jewish rats presided over by stepin fetchit.

You're touting that as proof/evidence of what?  That it works??  I can't recall which President Larouche was.  That everything any organization puts out is simply propaganda?  I'll grant you the latter, but we were given brains for some reasons and I'm thinking using them is one of them.

Your 'laser-like focus' on CDO's as the root of all evil seems uncharacteristic of you, as are the ad hominems.  There were "lots" of factors that led to our current state of affairs.  Which 'innocuous, run-of-the-mill boondogle' gets the honor in your world?

This one is worth a listen. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=player_embedded&v=-Czo5Vf8KZs