mmpsteve
Real CZ's have a long barrel!!
Oh I certainly agree. What most do not understand is that financial services(including derivatives and various money schemes) account for 22% of our GDP. The derivatives market is estimated at over $1 quadrillion in US dollars. How? Leverage. See a derivative in oil with an original wager of say $1000 can be leveraged up to 100 times that amount(depending on the odds makers,but 3-7x is fairly normal these days). Now if the original $1000 investor loses he gets a margin call. If he can not pay the $3000(went with the lowest leverage commonly used) he is in default. With derivatives there is no such thing as insurance(or oversight for that matter it is the wild west,but you do sign contracts so some legal framework exists,just no one to really watch over the whole fiasco that is substantially larger than all the economies of the world combined).
Think of a derivative like this. It is a bet something will move one way or the other,and by how much in some cases. That is all it really is. A bet. Those "bets" equal billions of dollars every single day,with some losing and some winning. The problem has always been what happens when one side loses,badly. That is what is happening currently.
If it were a card game in Vegas the dealer just wiped the whole table,then stole the chips and ran out of the casino,where a pick pocket stole a few of his chips. Even the dealer was robbed because it turns out chips are not money and no one is letting him cash in his chips(they went into default) and the pick pocket, well he has a few chips to use(while trying to not get caught). Everyone else involved though gets nothing and all lost their original wager. Now do that x $1 quadrillion. You likely see the problem of where we are.
China's 4th largest bank that just imploded and defaulted. That was because of the nickle derivatives it held and leveraged.One type of derivative was all it took,that was all it took. It lost and lost big. It can not meet the margin call and will never have enough in assets to(unless the government of China prints the money and just gives it to them,like our Fed did with our banks during the MBS fiasco commonly called the housing bubble).
And the trigger for all of this? Sanctions. It really is that simple.
Ok now for the rofl part I just read.
"
(Bloomberg) -- A unit of China Construction Bank Corp. was given additional time by the London Metal Exchange to pay hundreds of millions of dollars of margin calls it missed Monday amid an unprecedented spike in nickel prices, according to people familiar with the matter.
The reprieve from the LME means that the unit, called CCBI Global Markets, is not formally in default(**me...um yea it does it also meant someone is expecting the government of China to bail them out so they can get paid**), the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter isn’t public.
The non-payment isn’t necessarily an indicator of any problems at the parent company, which is one of China’s largest banks."
China Construction Bank Gets Reprieve on Metal Margin Calls
China Construction Bank Unit Gets Reprieve on Metal Margin Callswww.bloombergquint.com
How Big Is the Derivatives Market?
Learn how different calculations can reduce the estimate of the total derivatives market by as much as 90% to 95%.www.investopedia.com
GDP share by industry U.S. 2023 | Statista
In 2023, the finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing industry contributed the highest amount of value to the GDP of the U.S.www.statista.com
Here's something that is also simple. All the gambling activity you quote above does not produce one tangible iota of substance that benefits the human race.
It doesn't raise a crop, or a loaf of bread, or produce a fine 22 caliber rifle to shoot squirrels, or build a bridge, or dig a well, or fix anyone's Plumbing.
Maybe all those gambling fools that you mentioned above need to find something productive to do with their lives.
This country was made great by people producing goods or services of value that other people would pay them to possess. We need to get back to those roots if we are to salvage this once great country.
Financial gamblers add nothing of value. And I do understand the role of capital formation in the production process.
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