How Not To Blog ?

Ahhh.. the wonders of imaginary wealth. At the end of 2004 US banks held $88 trillion in derivatives, up 24% from $71.4 trillion at the end of 2003.

The Bank for International Settlements put the global derivatives market at $221 trillion as of mid-2004.

That's $221,000,000,000,000.

Derivatives are "...financial instruments that have no intrinsic value, but derive their value from something else. They hedge the risk of owning things that are subject to unexpected price fluctuations, e.g. foreign currencies, bushels of wheat, stocks and government bonds." [from here]

I think I've a pretty good idea for a consumer web-based derivatives market, but I think that if it ever caught on the wealth ceiling would be too damn crazy. (Besides that, it would be quickly taken over by corporations.) I'm not yet sure how natural a process the accumulation of immense abstract wealth is.

Money should be backed by gold, not backed up every night at 2AM by some geek sitting at a computer. This isn't a game. These are people's livelihoods. (Yes, this would make for a much, much smaller global economy. Is that so bad? What's our fucking hurry?)

I don't believe wealth should be evenly distributed, however. You can have a balance that doesn't look like the ease of 50/50*. I personally believe some people desire immense wealth and others desire extreme poverty, to facilitate their understanding of the world about them. Our brains may desire more money, but our hearts may know better. I see life as a type of game, to be played over and over again every time we see the sun rise. But losing touch with reality is a different story. There should be a theoretical limit to wealth just as there's a theoretical limit to resources available. With money backed by gold, there is. With our current financial system, there isn't.

*Just think about the size and placement of bodies in our solar system. The system is perfectly balanced but not in a 'politically-correct' sort of way. PC would never work in the real universe, and should not work in our own world, either. We think we're being fair when all we're being is stupid and ignorant.