What tickles me is that the people who criticise Wall Street for the value-less financial engineering of real estate, equities, commodities, etc., i.e. productive assets, turn around and start trying to create value out of thin air in fiat/social financial engineering schemes. I'm not commenting on the value of either activity directly as much as the asymmetry in holding both views simultaneously.
I think if you drilled a lot of people you'd end up with them being OK with all the financial engineering stuff, but _not_ OK with Wall Street risking _other_ people's money, not their own.
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What tickles me is that the people who criticise Wall Street for the value-less financial engineering of real estate, equities, commodities, etc., i.e. productive assets, turn around and start trying to create value out of thin air in fiat/social financial engineering schemes. I'm not commenting on the value of either activity directly as much as the asymmetry in holding both views simultaneously.
I think if you drilled a lot of people you'd end up with them being OK with all the financial engineering stuff, but _not_ OK with Wall Street risking _other_ people's money, not their own.