Tom wrote:
>No. Assuming the calculation is right, the $4.7 trillion would represent a
>value that could never be realized because if investors tried to liquidate
>their portfolios, prices would come down and they would "lose" the $4.7
>trillion that they never had in the first place. Likewise, if everyone on
>pen-l promised to given everyone else a million bucks, we'd all be
>fabulously rich until we tried to spend it. The astonishing thing is not
>the "wipe out" but the illusion that there was anything there to be wiped
>out.
the problem arises to the extent that the $4.7 trillion was perceived as
real and used as collateral for loans, etc.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
