Rule Over the Environment, 3

The first bird were the thrift insititutions. We have already seen before how thrift institutions were part of the real economy threatening the monopolistic grip of banksters over the nation’s financial resources which then had to be stopped.
The second bird were the not−so−junk bonds. Griffin tells us that these are stocks and bonds offered by smaller companies. The so called “institutional investors”, such as mutual funds and retirement funds, do not consider them because they are too small for the huge order of magnitude of their investments, hence many of them are not traded in the New York Stock Exchange but rather in smaller exchanges or directly between brokers in what is called “over the counter”. To compensate for this disadvantage and attract investors, they had to pay higher interest rates. Griffin continues, despite the fact that most of these were superior−grade investments to those from the Fortune−500 companies, some brokers derided them as not being “investment grade”. Yet, not only they were excellent performers, but they had also become the bakbone of new industry and thus an important part of the American economy; in fact, while the Fortune−500 companies were shrinking and eliminating 3.6 million jobs, this segment of new industry grew and created 18 million new jobs. From 1981 to 1991, the average return of ten−year Treasury bill was 10.4 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 12.9 percent, and the average return on so−called junk bonds was 14.1 percent, attracting investors and creating a new market. That too was a part of the real economy thereatening to bypass the monopolistic grip of banksters, get rid of it and thrive, that had to be stopped.