So what's the problem?

Look, it's all well and good to reference a lot of economic theory and extrapolate problems that may or may not occur in the future. Sure, the world economy is absolutely drowning in debt. Sure the financial system is still producing trillions of dollars of debt, and quadrillions - yes quadrillions - of dollars of debt derivatives on a yearly basis. Yes, nobody knows exactly how many of these debt derivatives exists, who the couterparties are and what happens if and when the need to be settled. Yes, if you have money in a bond fund there are probably no - that's zero - underlying bonds. Most are comprised of bond derivatives - simply bets on the direction of the value of certain forms of debt.

Fine. All that may be true. Yet who's to say that this complex financial system can't continue on - if not forever - then at least until we're all dead and it's somebody else's problem?

So what then is the problem?

All this debt, all these derivatives are not the problem. They're symptoms.

They're symptoms of an extreme and progressive illness that's metastasizing through the financial and cultural body. The illness is as old as humanity. It's called: "Get as much as you can for yourself by screwing over as many people as possible, and as long as you don't get caught and wind up in jail: you win."

This is the ethos of a generation.

Look at the dope in the picture above. This man is feted and lauded as a symbol of American success. Rappers write songs about him. When he declared his run for president he immediately became the Republican front runner. Talk show hosts extol his virtues. But who is he?

He inherited a real estate empire that he proceeded to load up with debt. When it went bankrupt most of his backers lost everything while he negotiated settlements with the banks that allowed him to maintain his lifestyle. Universally loathed in his own industry he became a reality TV star in a show where other TV personalities compete to screw and cheat each other out of the prize of a few dollars. Which pretty well describes every television game show, reality show, as well as much of the financial, industrial, health care and government industries.

So, what's the problem? That's just life on earth, right?

Right, but consider this: an entire financial system based on paper contracts - is an entire financial system based on trust.

Whom can you trust?