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.

Apparently not, since you decry corporate cronyism and regulatory corruption, then in the next breath call for more regulation.

You are highly confused.

Posted by: Russell Nelson

Russell you are a miserable person who can't even recognize basic humor. You need to chill out a bit and try to be a little more open and friendly.

Everyone who disagrees with you is not your enemy. I'm a good guy who's liked by his peers and friends (even my conservative ones), I contribute to society , I earn/pay my way. I obey the laws, follow the golden rule and have been married 22 years and a father of two daughters. I simply hold myself and my country to a high standard and I am looking for ways to leave this place a little better for those who follow. Nothing is more important then the future I leave for my daughters. If goading and provoking spirited intellectual debate in the interest of challenging mine and others beliefs is trolling then I suggest it is conformity you desire which is a boomerang striking right back at your supposed ideology.

That’s rather childish, don’t you think?
Posted by: Mesa Econoguy

Why do you think government is out to get you? I have fear of concentrations of any power weather they be in government or corporations or personal.

That’s rather childish, don’t you think?

I’m thinking Chef Data Offisir is probably a good idea.

Bobby Flay, and all….

Now, since muirgeo has clearly handed off his constitutional surgical DNC typing duties to subpar backbenchers, I'm curious to know, muirgeo, why and how you suffer from [previously undiscovered] verbal sciatica?

Victor Niederhoffer has already tried this, and he blew up during the 97 “crash” (which I witnessed on the CME floor).

Refco shut him down, and that wasn’t quite so musical…

Hey I'm all for Career Developement Offices. I also support the Chromosome Disorder Outreach and I think it IS important to have a Chef Data Officer. So I'm not sure what you're talking about Mesa.

Not under the current, broad interpretation of the commerce clause (post Wickard v. Filburn)

If I volunarily choose to blow–and am otherwise under no compulsion to blow–isn't my playing a voluntary contract to the other musicians? That which can be simultaneously accepted or rejected? Do any of the other players have a right to restrict my playing…without my consent?

More importantly, at what point do they choose to include or exclude my playing? And how important is it whether or not we are playing in the commons, or not?

If I am playing in the commons, I have the right to continue playing whether others choose to listen or not. (But how do you choose not to listen?)

Are you hearing other voices in your head? Your conitnuously criticize the regulators and make a strong case for getting rid of them all. But at that very moment of Nirvana, you suggest a solution that contradicts everything else you have said until that point – more regulators to regulate the regulators and get more to regulate those regulators and then some more regulators to regulate them and then some more regulators and so on and so forth.

You have this silly notion that regulations are written to favor the common man, it is not. Doesn't matter whether the government is communist, fascist, monarchy etc. The only solution is to strip the government down bare to just defence, courts, and some very minimal police work.

Seered into my memory is the image of Jim Kramer fron CNBC's Mad Money screaming into the camera at the Fed to infuse him more money and to loewer the rates… it was pathetic and I'm not sure it wasn't exactly what was going on behind close doored meetings of the fed and with JPM CEO's pushing the buttons.