{"id":22845,"date":"2008-04-08T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-08T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/blog\/?p=525"},"modified":"2008-04-08T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-08T17:59:00","slug":"el-show-de-truman-financiero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/el-show-de-truman-financiero\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truman Show, financial style."},"content":{"rendered":"
Until a few months ago, in the financial world, the rubbish<\/a> were efficiently collected, utilised and recycled by private companies that made this their business. These companies were called: Economic Growth plc, Property Bubble Ltd, Financos & Invers\u00f3patas Inc., Low Interest Rates & Co., Widow of a Speculator and Sons, and a few others I can\u2019t quite remember. <\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>In recent years, local or central government \u2013 that is to say, the central banks \u2013 did not have to worry about this \u2018waste\u2019, which served to sustain and enable the growth of companies such as those mentioned, seemingly without limit. For our part, as civil society, we were delighted with the order and tidiness that reigned in our streets. Some residents had even invested their current and, above all, future savings in these companies, anticipating a bright future. In the developed world, the welfare state was undoubtedly winning the battle against the endemic poverty found elsewhere on the planet. Furthermore, we felt an indescribable sense of pride at being able to generate wealth without financial waste and rubbish causing us any problems. We were so clever that we even managed to turn that rubbish to our advantage. <\/p>\n

The naivety was such that a large part of the population wasn\u2019t even<\/span> aware that our financial sector and our system<\/span> <\/span>economically, no rubbish or toxic waste was produced. We lived in a perfect <\/span>The Truman Show<\/a> financial.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>But over the past year, particularly when the heat was at its peak, the companies responsible for collecting, recycling and making use of this waste began to face serious difficulties. Not only had they stopped growing, but their size had reached such proportions that their own disproportionate scale and ever-accelerating excesses forced their extinction. They died of their own success, no more and no less. From then on, rubbish began to surface little by little. After a few months, the rate of floating rubbish<\/a> accelerated, and they began to pile up in our streets to an unhealthy extent.<\/p>\n

The problem was getting worse by the day. Rubbish and waste began to be glaringly obvious to the public, and the hitherto spotless image of our financial sector vanished like a soap bubble before our very eyes \u2013 and with it, so did the public\u2019s morale. The pessimism and the sense of a void beneath investors\u2019 feet is palpable today.<\/p>\n

As early as the second half of 2007, mortgage securitisations (hitherto known as AAA-rated debt) in an advanced state of decay began to appear on the high street. But as the months have passed, the financial health of our society\u2019s financial system has deteriorated significantly. Today, mountains of financial debt of rotten origin are piling up on every corner, which nobody even wants to look at. The stench is becoming unbearable, now that the first quarter of 2008 is behind us. The passage of time is making the situation worse, as rubbish is generated ceaselessly before the astonished eyes of civil and financial society. No one realised that all that rubbish could bury us as soon as the abusive waste recycling and disposal system collapsed. And very few were aware of the vast amount of waste that we were (and still are) capable of generating.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These days we can already see and smell the disgusting rubbish piled up on every corner, but amongst the securitised rubbish from financial institutions that\u2019s rotting away with each passing day, we can also find the odd little treasure worth salvaging. In fact, there are already those who make a living of rummaging through the rubbish to find, amongst the filth, non-financial corporate debts that someone has discarded like a broken toy. They\u2019re dirty and they stink, but once properly washed, cleaned and looked after, we can see them transformed into brand-new financial instruments in the future. They\u2019re sound and work perfectly, but unfortunately they\u2019re part of the detritus that makes life so hard for us these days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For its part, the Administration<\/a>, stunned by the sudden lack of interest from any other private company in waste collection and recycling, is finally beginning to take action. Some of the rubbish that nobody wants any more \u2013 and which was destined for the rubbish heap on the corner \u2013 is being exchanged for cold, hard cash. Many are jumping on the bandwagon and bringing out waste that they hadn\u2019t yet dared to dump on the pavements as stinking rubbish. But at least Someone is cleaning<\/a>, even if it is only a small part. The question is: how much can an administration clean up when it derives nothing but harm from that public waste collection service? And straight away a second doubt occurs to me: did it not also harm the private companies that apparently profited from that waste?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Others, as well as making the best of what they can and acknowledging the gaps that public opinion is willing to tolerate, also decide to shift the blame onto the dead. But as they don\u2019t usually have any dead people to hand, they choose one of their employees<\/a> and they carry it out publicly as a demonstration of their commitment to tackling internal irregularities (sic).<\/p>\n

Today we are still surrounded by mountains of rubbish giving off a foul stench and posing a serious epidemiological threat, but it seems that the rate at which we are dumping waste has stabilised; some even say it has decreased. I like to think that the worst is not yet behind us, but that it may well have been priced in by the fixed-income market (the equity market may well continue with the coitus interruptus<\/a> (which we discussed at the time).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another important and encouraging factor is the proliferation of scavengers who rummage through the rot in search of usable financial products at rock-bottom prices. These are undoubtedly the best ways to recycle the rubbish. But we will have to live for a long time with vast quantities of unsavoury debris spurned by the scavengers, before time transforms it into humus. And epidemics lurk in the shadows.<\/p>\n

On stage Mad Max<\/a> It is infinitely more complicated to invest than in the The Truman Show<\/a>, but in Mel Gibson\u2019s mountains of rubbish there are far more opportunities (to win and to lose) than in Jim Carrey\u2019s predictable and artificial neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

I love this game!<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hasta hace unos meses, en el mundo financiero, las basuras eran eficientemente recogidas, aprovechadas y recicladas por empresas privadas que hac\u00edan de ello su negocio. Estas empresas se llamaban: Crecimiento Econ\u00f3mico S.A., Burbuja Inmobiliaria S.L., Financos & Invers\u00f3patas Inc., Tipos de Inter\u00e9s Bajos & Co., Vda. de Especulador e Hijos y alguna que otra m\u00e1s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clusterfamilyoffice.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}