I found this British video from a duo who call themselves the Long Johns; it's probably one of the best analyses of the current financial crisis that I've seen. We all pretty much know the basics of the crisis, and it's underlying causes, but I've never seen it presented with such humor and certainly without the fantastic facial expressions that the Brits seem to be so blessed with. Follow me below the fold for the video.
This is a very funny snippet; of course I realize that there's not a whole lot to laugh at during this stressful time. But then again isn't that the best time to surround ourselves with humor? Let's all have a laugh for the sole reason that we're not supposed to find anything funny about the current situation, eh?
Direct link to YouTube video
Two men talking, ostenbsibly one of them interviewing the other, an investment banker with his fingers directly on the pulse of the markets. The banker:
Two things to remember about the markets. First: "...they are made up of very sharp and sophisticated individuals...the greatest brains in the world" and the second: "...the financial markets are driven by sentiment"
Astute advice and analysis, to be sure. More astuteness from the clip:
"Market participants don't know whether to buy on the rumor and sell on the news, do the opposite, do both, or do neither depending on which way the wind is blowing"
Now the speaker is quoting another source as having said this last bit; I'm not sure whether or not his citation is accurate or imaginary.
Here the video refuses to put lipstick on the pig, and calls out the financial crisis for what it really is:
Interviewer: "...despite these very plausible names, surely the reality is, the people that lent all this money have been incredibly stupid"
Banker: "Oh no, no, no. The reality is that what was stupid was that at some point someone asked how much money these houses were actually worth. If they hadn't asked that question, then everything would've gone as perfectly normal. But unfortunately, they did.
But the greatest exchange of the clip is its final hurrah:
Interviewer: "I see, but now, you see people are saying that the crisis is likely to turn into financial meltdown. I mean, can that be avoided?"
Banker: "It can be avoided, provided that governments and central banks give us, the financial speculators, the money back that we've lost"
Interviewer: "But isn't that rewarding greed and stupidity?"[THE 700 billion dollar question, after all!]
Banker: "No, it's rewarding what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the ingenuity of the markets."..."We don't want this money to spend on ourselves; we want this money just to go into the markets so that we can carry on borrowing and lending money as if nothing had happened without thinking too much about it."
Interviewer: "But if the worst came to worse and you didn't get the money, what then?"
Banker: "Well then there'd be another market crash, and then I would say to you what people like me always say, that it's not US who will suffer, it's your pension fund."
Pure brilliance. Truth, but with just a tinge (just a wafer-thin tinge) of exaggeration to get people paying attention. Why don't we see this kind of honesty in the US press?