I went back to the first post and to the link
http://www.bloomberg...id=aUpBrUJ.pIiA
I will say a few words about the complexity of modern life. I may start a thread on just this topic so as to not hijack this one, but for the moment I will focus on this original post and the linked article.
The fourth paragbraph:
Quote
If there’s one group to blame, Lewis says it’s the “people who designed synthetic CDOs at Goldman Sachs.”
I havew no idea what this means. And if I learn what it means, I have little faith that I will have a confident opinion as to whether the quoted statement is correct.
Let's compare it to earlier days.
The nation needed coal. Miners dug coal. Coal mines provided jobs for the miners, coal for our furnaces (we had a coal bin in the basement and we shoveled coal into the furnace) and profits for the owners. The job was dangerous both for dramatic dangers such as cave-ins and fires, and long term with the almost certainty of shortened life from inhaling coal dust. Anyone with an ounce of sense could understan all of this, so the country could support inreased safety, increased wages and better working conditions for miners. Sure it wasn't that simple, not at all, but the basic issues were pretty clear to everyone. Now, in order to be an informed citizen/voter I have to learn about synthetic CDOs. I am sorry to be such a laggard, but I do not have an opinion about synthetic CDOs. I wouldn't recognize one if it slapped me in the face. I am very far from unique in this, I am sure.
Passed Out says that a lot of people swallow propaganda. This is true.. Including me. Surely part of the reason is that the issues are often complex and distant from the experience of the vast majority.
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the comments and references. By analogy, I watched
The 50 year argument last night, It's an HBO documentary by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi about the New York Review of Books. I recommend it. I was left a little stunned by seeing how much some people know that I don't know. And they didn't even get to synthetic CDOs.
An aside: When I was a grad student I had a friend who, upone seeing me, would say "Do you know how dumb I am? I didn't even know that..." and then he would proceed to download all of the mathematics that he had learned since I last saw him. Very annoying. I am not doing that here with my claim of ignorance. I think I once knew what a CDO is, but I have forgotten. I don't think that I ever knew what a synthetic CDO is. And when I read this stuff, my eyes quickly glaze over. I know I should learn this so that I can invest wisely or vote wisely or do something wisely, but I can't stay focused. As I say, I think the vast majority of people are in a similar situation.