And the money people were getting for this real estate was more than the real estate was actually worth. So by extension, if a carbon credit exchange is established (by the government mind you), it only has value because the government said so. There is nothing backing this exchange with any tangible value.
So, any price paid is effectively a bubble.
Wall Street is no longer risk averse, and with good reason. They took huge risks in Mexico in 1995. When it crashed, we bailed them out. Same in 1997 and 1998. Hell, same thing today. So, why would they care if it crashed? They will be bailed out, profits intact. Sure sounds like capitalism to me.
If we let the market work in the manner it is supposed work, these companies would not be involving themselves in such actions. The Mexican example is fitting. Investment houses were leveraged about 30:1 to get in very high risk Mexican government bonds paying about 12%. When it became apparent these were going to crash (and by extension hurt our banks) the United States came in, loaned the Mexican government the money to pay back the banks, with their profits. If you were a bank, why would you not take the same action action again?
Had we allowed those banks to simply take the hit, or even take fifty cents to the dollar, they would not be going after high risk action all the time knowing the government would be there to save them.
