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tatupu70 says

Absolutely. This in turn again is a the main driver for people to want an MBA degree, preferably from a "reputable" university and shell out ludicrous sums for tuition to learn nothing but high school math.

This I agree with---the finance industry could virtually disappear and the US economy would be no worse off. IMO--the value of liquidity is vastly overrated.

The reason why those jobs exist and are high paying and induce parents and students to shell enormous sums is because these jobs are essentially subsidized by the government. It's just like parents used to tell their daughters to marry doctors because it is a licensed industry, and in some other cultures, the young eagerly pursue government bureaucrat careers because once again those bureaucratic positions are highly subsidized.

Reality says

The reason why those jobs exist and are high paying and induce parents and students to shell enormous sums is because these jobs are essentially subsidized by the government. It's just like parents used to tell their daughters to marry doctors because it is a licensed industry, and in some other cultures, the young eagerly pursue government bureaucrat careers because once again those bureaucratic positions are highly subsidized.

This I do not agree with. The free market is the cause--notice that as regulation is reduced, the finance industry grows and becomes even more destructive.

tatupu70 says

Reality says

The reason why those jobs exist and are high paying and induce parents and students to shell enormous sums is because these jobs are essentially subsidized by the government. It's just like parents used to tell their daughters to marry doctors because it is a licensed industry, and in some other cultures, the young eagerly pursue government bureaucrat careers because once again those bureaucratic positions are highly subsidized.

This I do not agree with. The free market is the cause--notice that as regulation is reduced, the finance industry grows and becomes even more destructive.

The finance industry pays those who create the laws to make sure that their paper agreements are sacrosanct. Just look how Tiimmy and Hanky broke the law to bail out the TBTF's through AIG.

A while ago, the Chinese government told Goldman Sachs to take some horribly underwater swaps derivatives unwisely purchased by a Chinese company and stick them where the sun doesn't shine. The world did not come to an end. But as long as the USG is acting as the law for the TBTF's in these matters, citizens will continue to be sucked dry.

tatupu70 says

Reality says

The reason why those jobs exist and are high paying and induce parents and students to shell enormous sums is because these jobs are essentially subsidized by the government. It's just like parents used to tell their daughters to marry doctors because it is a licensed industry, and in some other cultures, the young eagerly pursue government bureaucrat careers because once again those bureaucratic positions are highly subsidized.

This I do not agree with. The free market is the cause--notice that as regulation is reduced, the finance industry grows and becomes even more destructive.

Fiat money central banking is not a product of free market. It is entirely a product of territorial (i.e. Feudal) privilege. When the lords are given the privilege to rape and pillage the peasants, sometimes "code of chivalry" was introduced to ameliorate the worst of excesses.

When regulations on banks were reduced, the effect of government regulation via fiat money printing privilege was expanded not reduced. It's like the banks were given the right to kill.