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The Maldives Swap
THE MALDIVES SWAP....The Maldives — average elevation: 150 cm above sea level — wants to buy some land in another country as an insurance policy against global warming:
[Newly elected president Mohamed Nasheed] said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available."We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades," he said.
Instead of setting up a sovereign wealth fund to purchase the land, perhaps Nasheed should just buy a credit default swap that pays off if the Maldives are inundated. Since Republicans don't believe that global warming exists, they should be eager buyers for the other end of the swap.
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Sure. They'll just get bailed out by the government when this (leveraged up the wazoo) market collapses.
DUH.
Yeah but then they would need another CDS insuring them against the demise of the Republicans. Who would be willing to write that one?
Brilliant, Kevin.
JS >"...Who would be willing to write that one?"
Rush Limbaugh, Bill O`Reilly, anyone at FauxNoise, etc.
How about a rrea;;y ha
JS >"...Who would be willing to write that one?"
Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O`Reilly, anyone at FauxNoise, etc.
How about a difficult question next time ?
"....this world is not a playground where children at play are pampered by friendly nannies..." - Wendelin Wiedeking
Oooops, sorry about that. Kitty walked on keyboard at the wrong time.
"...Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid...." - Voltaire
There's a catch, though. If the Maldivians are looking for climate change insurance now, they are smart enough to know that you cannot write insurance against your own demise.
"Since Republicans don't believe that global warming exists"
Why do you keep peddling this stupid lie?
Why do you keep peddling this stupid lie?
Lies are not stupid. Only facts are. For Republicans.
"a" - Check out the Drudge Report. The truth about global warming is exposed daily. We're actually experiencing global COOLING! Matt has the facts. He'll be first in line for those CDS's.
You can't really just buy land to solve this problem. You would need a guarantee from the seller that either all your citizens would become citizens of the new country, or that the land you bought would become your sovereign territory, beholden only to your authority. Plus you may need access rights for getting all your people there through other countries.
Which country these days would be willing to give up part of its land to a foreign power? There's usually a reason they claimed the land in the first place. And the likelyhood is that, if the land were livable or useful, someone would already have it, and not be willing to sell it in any sizeable lot. Plus all the inherent issues you get with countries arguing over natural resource rights (water as an example).
The market in CDS seems vaguely similar to the 17th century Dutch market in tulips. Fortunes made and lost based on selling something without any inherent, tangible value.
The whole market depends on the continued participation of people enthusiastic about the market.
Actually trashhauler, the dutch market in tulips did feature things with inherent, tangible value.
Today the dutch Tulip export is still a large profitable industry for example
but mostly because after you'd bankrupted yourself speculating in bulbs of newly designed tulips you could actually still eat them for dinner to prevent starvation.