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That there's no profit is something I've seen repeatedly, including written by Warren Buffet. So my question is where does the capital they burn through each year come from ? What kind of magic business is this where companies are eternally taking losses yet still around ?

Is someone giving them money to burn ?




Unfortunately, explaining this will take more than a sentence and it's 00:30 where I am and I need to sleep. But in a nutshell, the whole industry relies on a heady mix of stupid investors, money launderers and state backing. The only people that make money are the brokers (as in most industries...).


But there's a lot of money in running the things: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/01/american_merg...




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