One day, a quite awful looking young man brought with a very beautiful girl into a Louis Vuitton flag store. He chose a very expensive LV handbag. Then the young man pulled out cheque book, signed and handed over a cheque. The shop clerk was a little bit concerned because it was the first time he saw the couple shopping in this store.

The young men saw through the clerk's mind. He said to the clerk in a very calm voice: "I feel that you are worried about this cheque, right? Today is Saturday, the bank is closed. I leave the cheque and the handbag in the shop. After you cash the cheque on Monday, could you please send this handbag to the girl's home, is that okay?"

The clerk was quite pleased accepting the suggestion, and promised generously to deliver the handbag on all the cost of the store.

On Monday, the clerk took the cheque to the bank and found out it's fraudulent! Irritatedly, the clerk made a phone call to the young man. However, the young man said to the clerk still in a very calm voice: "Everything is fine! You don't lost anything and neither do I."

"Oh by the way, I've slept with that girl last Saturday. Thanks for your cooperation."

The merit of this story reveals the nature of the sub-prime crisis.

People who full of good expectations for future earnings may increase the risk of a lack of awareness, especially when the huge investment is based on non-transparency and uncertainty. The beautiful girl naturally relaxed vigilance after thought she had already had LV handbag. To pack the future earnings expectations is the financial institutions in Wall St do their best.

In this story, the young man is Goldman Sachs and its peer investment firms, the clerk who often plays a role in coordination is the U.S. federal government. Sadly, the beautiful innocent girl who got screwed in the end is the average investors ...