Of course not! They are great instruments! What is bad is to give a Debt Obligation Collateralized with pure junk a prime credit rating… like the credit rating agencies did.

"I realize that there is no such thing as a purely free market."

I suspect, mjh, that you expand you're thinking. Pure free markets exist all around me here in Houston.

As a matter of fact one happened today in my driveway.

A young Mexican guy stopped and talked to me as I cleaned up my sunflower beds around my fence line.

He offered to performance my needed yard service for me and at my request gave me an estimate. I thought it over and rejected it.

Pure free market, and the fact that I rejected his offer changes nothing. If I had accepted it still would have been a pure free market.

There were no government controls or regulations even remotely considered in our marketplace, and no schedule except what we were choosing to place on ourselves freely from choice.

Are you that imprecise with your patients, “doctor”?

Oh you meant collateralized debt obligations. Maybe you should ask Merrill Lynch that question. Also, maybe you could explain to us all how the Feds balance sheet has changed over the last 6-12 months.

Doubtful.

and friends (even my conservative ones),

You have no friends.

I contribute to society ,

No you don’t, you’re a leech.

I earn/pay my way.

No, you don’t. You piggyback on productive society. You're probably a really shitty doctor, judging by the amount of time you spend on this blog. I don't have that luxury, because I perform and monitor multi-million dollar transactions daily, which requires my full attention, unlike your medical hobby.

I obey the laws, follow the golden rule and have been married 22 years and a father of two daughters.

That’s nice. I’m sorry your daughters don’t have a good role model. That's quite unfortunate.