"in Pratica... E' Finita" (by Charlie Munger)

• 19:16 21/02/10
• Warren Buffett da 40 anni ha un socio di qualche anno più anziano, Charlie Munger che è meno noto perchè non va in TV e si espone meno, ma che secondo molti è la mente analitica, quello che studia di più i bilanci e i dati economici (è laureato in matematica, ha fatto il metereologo e ha studiato ad Harvard). Buffett è il "trader", il pubblicitario, l'uomo marketing, l'affarista. Ad ogni modo Munger ha fatto quasi gli stessi miliardi di Buffett essendo suo socio appunto dagli anni '60 e quando scrive qualcosa vale la pena, ad esempio ieri questo pezzo in forma di parabola intitolato: "In Pratica... E' Finita" (una parabola di come un paese è arrivato alla rovina finanziaria)). A scrivere che l'America è arrivata alla rovina finanziaria, non sono giovanotti eccitabili su siti internet alternativi, ma gente anziana molto seria come Charlie Munger. Il quale suggerisce di mettere al bando, di vietare per legge, il trading di derivati esotici OTC come le credit default swap o derivati sui bonds cartolarizzati da mutui e currency interest swap (con cui Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Barclay's, DeutscheBank e il resto della mafia finanziaria fanno miliardi mentre 10 milioni di americani perdono il lavoro, per colpa loro). Charlie Munger chiama Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Barclay's, DeutscheBank... "gambling casinos" cioè operatori di casinò, come quelli di Las Vegas e suggerisce in pratica di chiuderle (sempre più commentatori indipendenti in America usano invece di "Bankers", il gioco di parole "Banksters" perchè rima con "Gangsters") Come spiega delicatamente Munger in forma di parabola, l'attività principale degli Stati Uniti (ed Inghilterra) è diventata il Gioco d'Azzardo (travestito sotto forma di "Mercato Finanziario Globale" dove le grandi banche si concentrano sul trading di derivati sul debito esotici OTC, dove "OTC" sta per "fuori da ogni giurisdizione" cioè opachi, non visibili). Ma è un gioco d'azzardo particolare, perchè quando poi va male e ci sono enormi perdite, dato che queste istituzioni finanziarie gestiscono anche i depositi dei risparmiatori oppure hanno in mano il debito delle aziende poi i contribuenti devono pagarne il conto. E quando arrivi a questo punto e persino dopo il crac del 2008 insisti su questa strada vai incontro alla rovina(".... Much counterproductive governmental action was taken, and the country's credit was reduced to tatters. Basicland is now under new management, using a new governmental system. It also has a new nickname: Sorrowland....")

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  Basically, It's Over A parable about how one nation came to financial ruin By Charles Munger ...These dangers were significant by 2012, when the extreme prosperity of Basicland had created a peculiar outcome: As their affluence and leisure time grew, Basicland's citizens more and more whiled away their time in the excitement of casino gambling. Most casino revenue now came from bets on security prices under a system used in the 1920s in the United States and called "the bucket shop system." The winnings of the casinos eventually amounted to 25 percent of Basicland's GDP, while 22 percent of all employee earnings in Basicland were paid to persons employed by the casinos (many of whom were engineers needed elsewhere). So much time was spent at casinos that it amounted to an average of five hours per day for every citizen of Basicland, including newborn babies and the comatose elderly. Many of the gamblers were highly talented engineers attracted partly by casino poker but mostly by bets available in the bucket shop systems, with the bets now called "financial derivatives." Many people, particularly foreigners with savings to invest, regarded this situation as disgraceful. After all, they reasoned, it was just common sense for lenders to avoid gambling addicts. As a result, almost all foreigners avoided holding Basicland's currency or owning its bonds. They feared big trouble if the gambling-addicted citizens of Basicland were suddenly faced with hardship. And then came the twin shocks. Hydrocarbon prices rose to new highs. And in Basicland's export markets there was a dramatic increase in low-cost competition from developing countries. It was soon obvious that the same exports that had formerly amounted to 25 percent of Basicland's GDP would now only amount to 10 percent. Meanwhile, hydrocarbon imports would amount to 30 percent of GDP, instead of 15 percent. Suddenly Basicland had to come up with 30 percent of its GDP every year, in foreign currency, to pay its creditors. How was Basicland to adjust to this brutal new reality? This problem so stumped Basicland's politicians that they asked for advice from Benfranklin Leekwanyou Vokker, an old man who was considered so virtuous and wise that he was often called the "Good Father." Such consultations were rare. Politicians usually ignored the Good Father because he made no campaign contributions. Among the suggestions of the Good Father were the following. First, he suggested that Basicland change its laws. It should strongly discourage casino gambling, partly through a complete ban on the trading in financial derivatives, and it should encourage former casino employees—and former casino patrons—to produce and sell items that foreigners were willing to buy. Second, as this change was sure to be painful, he suggested that Basicland's citizens cheerfully embrace their fate. After all, he observed, a man diagnosed with lung cancer is willing to quit smoking and undergo surgery because it is likely to prolong his life. The views of the Good Father drew some approval, mostly from people who admired the fiscal virtue of the Romans during the Punic Wars. But others, including many of Basicland's prominent economists, had strong objections. These economists had intense faith that any outcome at all in a free market—even wild growth in casino gambling—is constructive. Indeed, these economists were so committed to their basic faith that they looked forward to the day when Basicland would expand real securities trading, as a percentage of securities outstanding, by a factor of 100, so that it could match the speculation level present in the United States just before onslaught of the Great Recession that began in 2008. The strong faith of these Basicland economists in the beneficence of hypergambling in both securities and financial derivatives stemmed from their utter rejection of the ideas of the great and long-dead economist who had known the most about hyperspeculation, John Maynard Keynes. Keynes had famously said, "When the capital development of a country is the byproduct of the operations of a casino, the job is likely to be ill done." It was easy for these economists to dismiss such a sentence because securities had been so long associated with respectable wealth, and financial derivatives seemed so similar to securities. Basicland's investment and commercial bankers were hostile to change. Like the objecting economists, the bankers wanted change exactly opposite to change wanted by the Good Father. Such bankers provided constructive services to Basicland. But they had only moderate earnings, which they deeply resented because Basicland's casinos—which provided no such constructive services—reported immoderate earnings from their bucket-shop systems. Moreover, foreign investment bankers had also reported immoderate earnings after building their own bucket-shop systems—and carefully obscuring this fact with ingenious twaddle, including claims that rational risk-management systems were in place, supervised by perfect regulators. Naturally, the ambitious Basicland bankers desired to prosper like the foreign bankers. And so they came to believe that the Good Father lacked any understanding of important and eternal causes of human progress that the bankers were trying to serve by creating more bucket shops in Basicland. Of course, the most effective political opposition to change came from the gambling casinos themselves. This was not surprising, as at least one casino was located in each legislative district. The casinos resented being compared with cancer when they saw themselves as part of a long-established industry that provided harmless pleasure while improving the thinking skills of its customers. As it worked out, the politicians ignored the Good Father one more time, and the Basicland banks were allowed to open bucket shops and to finance the purchase and carry of real securities with extreme financial leverage. A couple of economic messes followed, during which every constituency tried to avoid hardship by deflecting it to others. Much counterproductive governmental action was taken, and the country's credit was reduced to tatters. Basicland is now under new management, using a new governmental system. It also has a new nickname: Sorrowland.

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