NINA == CICO?
Confused over what's currently happening with the world economy? Shocked that stock indexes can loose up to 20% of their value in one day!?
Surprise, surprise - this is not a new problem. The unsustainable practices which brought on the current crisis are known for a long time, even books have been written about them, for example "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis - published 1989. If you want to get a better knowledge about what's going on right now, read the book. You will be a lot wiser afterward, but don't expect to understand. Understanding seems just not possible right now.
Personally, I think that the whole crisis was brought on by a very old myth. The abiltiy to make gold out of sand or money for nothing. If I would claim our days that I could transform sand to gold the absurdity of this claim would hopefully be for most people quite obvious. Unfortunately, the money for nothing schemes which let the world economy collapse at the moment are much more sophisticated and for a layperson almost impossible to see through. But that should not be an excuse for anyone. Everyone should have been suspicious by the guaranteed interest gains promised by many of these dodgy investments. One should always remember - from nothing nothing comes.
And even in this crisis I can see parallels in the development world. Take for example the NINA mortgages which to a great extend brought on the current disaster. There is a direct parallel in the development world. It's called CICO. In my rather short career I already had the "pleasure" to work on several projects which got into difficulties due to CICO. The customer wanted to have this great new functionality, wanted to be part of Web 2.0, wanted it now. And all this of course without changing the underlying obsolete structures like the completely crusted, inconsistent and out of date database. Common sense suggests to at least address the issues and mitigate potential problems by for example adding an additional layer of indirection. But that's maybe just me, since many times I just fell on deaf ears.
I think it is time to stop building sand castles and remember that every system needs a solid foundation. A free market does not mean money can be made from nothing. A sustainable market has to be based on sustainable values.
Well, that were my 0.02$ to the topic.
--Hardy