I wish I had written this.

Normally this is the sort of thing I would post to my ‘tumble blog’ Everything you can imagine is real.  (This is where I now post links to articles and items I find interesting but don’t have the time or inclination or need to add any comment of value.)  But since many of you may not subscribe / read that blog, and because I think this is such a well written – concise, insightful, eloquent – essay, I wanted to post a link to John Kay’s latest editorial here.

How could banks have persuaded themselves, their shareholders and the public that they were making so much money when in reality they were losing it? The history of financial deception and self-deception is as old as humanity, but a few themes recur. A Ponzi scheme offers a high return using the funds of newcomers to make payments to earlier subscribers, and collapses when the supply of suckers runs out. The New Economy was the greatest of Ponzi schemes. It has been different this time. But not so different.

Read the whole thing. Brilliant.

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