I've known about derivatives for a long time. Hope mixed with an underlying greed for profit based on NO products or service. Pure vapor. In fact PBS's Frontline has been running a series for the past week or so on vapor-based speculation and what it's doing to world economies. The banks and investment companies KNOW it's a complete scam, but greed is so contagious that even THEY can't resist.

This, of course, is one of the reasons the Right Wingers hate PBS so much. Their programs such as Frontline tend to tell you what's actually going on. And we can't have THAT!!

There oughta be laws to prevent this kind of pseudo-fraud. In fact, I think there are several, but everybody ignores them.

FDR's instituting of the Securities and Exchange Commission back in the Thirties was for the purpose of stuffing a cork into this kind of speculation, and it work! Until Ronnie Reagan, to the delight of the sharks in the financial swimming pool, castrated it. Reagan couldn't actually get it rescinded, so he appointed bankers and investment brokers to the commission.

Classic "putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop."

Hello 1929 all over again! Totally predictable!

Don Firth