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The Ingenuity Of The Markets

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by Felix Salmon
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Ben Stein Watch: October 21, 2007   Wall Street vs Blogs, Analyst Edition

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Oct 22 2007 12:00am EDT

The Ingenuity of the Markets

John Bird and John Fortune on structured credit. I'm in heaven.

"It's moved onto Wall Street and it's extraordinary what happens then: somehow, this package of dodgy debts stops being a package of dodgy debts, and starts being what we call a structured investment vehicle. I buy it, yes, and then I will ring up somebody in Tokyo and say look, I've got this package, do you want to buy it, and they say what's in it, and I say I haven't got the faintest idea, and they say how much do you want for it, and I say a hundred million dollars, and then they say fine. That's it, that's the market."

(Via Calculated Risk)

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