Brazil's Lessa Denounces the "Quadrillion" Derivatives Bubble as a "Pigsty"

January 10, 2009 (LPAC)--Brazilian nationalist economist and former President of the state-owned BNDES development bank, Carlos Lessa, told Terra magazine on Dec. 17 that the cause of the international financial crisis is "the froth of $640 trillion" in derivatives, according to BIS estimates, "although nobody knows how much they really are. In the U.S., there are analysts who say that it's a quadrillion. You can't even pronounce that, can you?" he joked with the interviewer.

"The festival of madness which occurred in the derivatives market, the stock market, the futures market can no longer exist. That is going to wiped off the face of the map," Lessa continued. "Mankind will not commit harakiri. Human society does not commit ritual suicide. If that pigsty of all that financial speculation led to such a mess, the world will reorganize itself to be able to continue to exist. In that reorganization, nation-states are going to be very important."

Lessa added: "Usually a crisis like this one generates an intense intellectual flowering. The question always arises: 'So where did we go wrong? Boy, did we delude ourselves!'"