Lord Ivan Canas: What happened in a funny and easy way. Please read the 'more info' section

Professor Peter Morici of the University of Maryland has been an adviser to the US Congress and government.

Wizardry. Alchemy. Lead into gold. Are these the playthings only of medieval fools?

The credit crunch tells us perhaps not. The Holy Grail of medieval science was to find the formula to turn lead into gold.

August 2007 Short-term credit markets freeze up after French bank BNP Paribas suspends three investment funds worth 2bn euros
The bank cited problems in the US sub-prime mortgage sector
During the following months, US and European banks report losses totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
The European Central Bank pumps 95bn euros into the eurozone banking system to ease the sub-prime credit crunch
The US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan take similar steps

And why not? Wealth without work. Everyone was for that, but we modern folks know better. Or do we?

Today, globalisation is driving down profit margins in making everything, from steel to software. If you make a profit, soon someone in China will make it begone.

But deal-making, putting companies together and taking them apart, financing it all, offers great rewards.

Then there are the risks. Making risks evaporate in the morning sun, or the shadows of Wall Street, seems to be where the wealth lies.

Enter our financial engineers. They don't deal in metals or megabytes, they deal in companies that make them.

Combining them, financing them, taking them apart, putting them together again. That's the stuff of modern fortunes.

But what of those risks? The engineers that assemble these deals say all the risks can be laid off on other engineers and their clients.

And by investing in each other, everyone's money will be safe. Profits without risk.

They even thought they could do that with sub-prime mortgages - home loans to people who really couldn't afford them.

They bought each other's debt and erased one another's risk by dealing with one another in a giant chain letter. Until someone realised that what they were trading wasn't worth a hill of beans.

The house of cards has collapsed, but were these guys the fools? Or do true wizards live on Wall Street?

Perhaps they do, because the engineers have escaped with their big paydays and bonuses, and central banks like the Federal Reserve and Bank of England are underwriting the tab to foist the bill on all of us - the taxpayers.

Who are the fools here? Perhaps you and me. The engineers have turned worthless paper into personal fortunes by sticking us with the tab.

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[runninghoove]

America will be a 3rd world nation within the next 24 months. Stop watching videos of Brittany Spears crotch and start watching videos on farming, you're about to begin starving to death. The end of America is here. Heed my warning, you will remember this post and regret not learning about how to grow food as you starve to death. Good luck.

[Cossack007]

The Lehman Building is going to be converted either to a section 8 welfare housing complex or a mental institute for former bankers. The Federal Reserve is responsible for this. The Federal Reserve is unconstitutional and the Founding Fathers warned about ever allowing banks to control the American currency. These men are so evil they make Darth Vader look like a Boy Scout.

[shakaama]

@davidcurtin1 He said "unemployed Black man in his Spring vest". Meaning he was a dashing Black man, sitting on his own porch and the "mortgage broker" tricked him into buying a house that was falling apart.

Wells Fargo nearly, singlehandedly, gutted whole Black communities with fraudulent loans like this. The mass media doesn't report on Black people owning homes. Of course there are 10 white people to 1 Black person, but still a sizable chunk of predatory lending was for Blacks.

[shakaama]

if all investment bankers were this entertaining i bet we'd have a more equitable economy.

[lolowntmuch]

10 facs about u 1. You are reading this while playing the video 2. You're realizing that's a stupid fact 4. You didn't notice I skipped three 5. You're checking now 6. You're like WHAT THE FUCK 7. You're still reading my comment 9. You didn't realize I skipped eight 10. You're checking again and facepalming yourself. 11. You are enjoying this 12. You didn't realize there's only supposed to be ten facts Copy and paste this to a video, tomorrow will be ur best day

[Jacobitess]

@aribenzane

It's quite naive saying it like that. Firstly, there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans (everyone was for the world in the political world; there was NO loyal opposition). And whether you like conspiracy theories or not, politicians agreed amongst themselves on Bush being president for a second term, or Democrats wouldn't have presented a nutcase like Kerry as the competitor, just as the Republicans wouldn't have presented McCain if they had not wanted Obama.

[kibk8al]

um...

[marypoppins2009]

Thanks for keeping us laughing...as our pockets are picked...ha, ha, ha!

[davidcurtin1]

Why does he use the analogy of a poor black man in a vest not so clever, I think it was mainly poor white people in string vests that were getting all the loans.....

[tomfromeur]

It's true: "It's not they (big investors) who suffer, it's the regular people pension fund."

[JusticeLeague9]

Nobody sees that.  Watch my video about the white arm band.

[revolter1]

Pursuit of profit is the pursuit of self interest.

We don't need PENSION when the future can be entirely free and sustain all life!