Money, Power and Wall Street

[Andy Nguyen]

Excellent PBS Frontline series: Money, Power and Wall Street.

 

[babinu]

Thanks Andy, Looking forward for more posts like these !

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Episode 3 and 4 have been aired.

 

[Ling Gu]

Thank you, Andy. Very helpful materials for me.

 

[Joe Ross]

These documentaries keep coming around, but all of them fail to mention that the financial crisis is rooted in this little gem of government regulation,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

 

[Ling Gu]

These documentaries keep coming around, but all of them fail to mention that the financial crisis is rooted in this little gem of government regulation,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

True. And at the same time it is hard for gov't to exert tight regulatory policies on new derivatives until it causes big problems.

 

[Joe Ross]

True. And at the same time it is hard for gov't to exert tight regulatory policies on new derivatives until it causes big problems.

"That government is best which governs least" - Henry David Thoreau

 

[Jason Berkenpas]

Thanks for sharing! They don't give that good of an impression of the derivatives business, portraying derivatives as having absolutely no use and purely betting. Paraphrasing from the movie: "Who created the credit default swap? Find them. Fire them". Suprised no one here is coming to the defense of derivatives here. Anyone care to comment or do you agree prop traders have no beneficial use to the economy; swaps only hurt taxpayers, etc?

 

[psmart]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Thanks for sharing! They don't give that good of an impression of the derivatives business, portraying derivatives as having absolutely no use and purely betting. Paraphrasing from the movie: "Who created the credit default swap? Find them. Fire them". Suprised no one here is coming to the defense of derivatives here. Anyone care to comment or do you agree prop traders have no beneficial use to the economy; swaps only hurt taxpayers, etc?

Depends on who you ask. Hopefully, the members here are more knowledgeable than the general public when it comes to the nature and danger of derivatives products. It's how you use it. In the hands of the wrong people or being misused can lead to deja vu again?
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05...ificant-losses-in-trading-group/?ref=business

 

[Yike Lu]

Thanks Andy, that was probably the best all-round documentary of the crisis I've seen.

As far as derivatives, I'd say that at least for structured products, they allowed the JPM guys to put forth a well reasoned defense of their creations - that was the fairest portrayal of that particular market I've seen.

For other derivatives, mentioned later on, it does seem they were a bit one sided. They totally missed the hedging side of it, whether it's the use of futures for off-setting a natural long or short position e.g. in commodities, or the fact that the banks naturally take the other side of these derivatives deals (and therefore have to hedge their exposure).