-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: Steve Kurtz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Aan: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Datum: lundi 31 mai 1999 19:26
Onderwerp: Re: Created Unequal by James Galbraith
>Greetings again,
>
>Thomas Lunde wrote:
>
>> As to virtual profits earned by speculation,
>
>I have debunked this misconception on prior occasions. Trading in
>futures, options, and other leveraged instruments (which is the usual
>method of determining just who are speculators in financial markets) is
>a zero sum game. Losses and profits net out.
How many investors are nowadays buying (and holding on to) stocks for the
dividends they produce? Nowadays stocks are bought primarily because their
value is expected to rise. Between 1990 and 1993 the capital involved in the
international financial circuit has tripled to $3 trillion (Newsweek,
October 3, 1994). In ten years the value of the most traded stocks (as shown
in the Dow Jones index) rose by 246%, while in that same period the economy
expanded by just some 30% (average growth rate of 2.6% over the ten year
period). Then how do you account for that? Hardly a zero sum game.
The fact is you are calling speculators only a certain type of short term
high risk speculators, while actually practically the whole market is
speculating.
>A lesser gain is not the same as an outright loss. It is more akin to an
>'opportunity loss'.
Wasn't that one of the things transnational companies wanted to be refunded
for in the MAI propositions?
Regards
Jan Matthieu
Flemish greens
