The Eastern Edge

I've found myself at odds with Alan Moore's opinions more often than not, but this one hits the nail on the head!

The following is a excerpt from part 2 of a recent interview with Moore at the Honest Publishing website.

...I read a couple of books on economics to see if I could get my head around the facts of the situation. I was astonished when I found out the value of derivative bonds, in 2008. These are bonds that have a value in themselves that were once connected to a real thing, there might have been a bond made for the sale of a herd of sheep, but that can be sold on and they gain in value. The notional value of the world’s derivative bonds was in the region of sixty trillion. Exactly ten times the economic output of the entire planet, which is around six trillion. That means that the gap between what economists and what the world’s economic forces and the banks thought they had to play with and what actually existed was fifty-four trillion. That would seem to me the depth of the hole we are in.

Right on!

This is how speculators are destroying the world because when they gamble with money that doesn't exist and they lose, someone actually has to pay up!

Just a thought I wanted to post while I work on my latest translation (which is going to be slightly delayed because I can't find the magazine after doing some "cleaning-up" last weekend. Sorry! I'll try and find the magazine and get the translation done as close to when I said I would as possible).