So The Stock Market Crashed, But Where Did All The Money Go? Somebody Had To Have Made Money? Who Has All Of Our Money Now?

Published by on October 14, 2008

Where did all the money go? The stock markets are crashed, and people lost a lot of money, but why don’t we know who has all the money?

This weekend at the movie theatre I was sitting back in my seat, and my wallet fell out. After I got back to the car, I couldn’t find my wallet anywhere.

So in this situation, I had about $100 in my wallet. I would have lost $100, and someone would have made $100.

There is Always a Winner and a Loser

If I sell my car for $5,000 and it’s actually worth $7,000, then I lost $2,000 in the transaction and the buyer gained $2,000.

If a stock is bought for $20, and then is sold for $10, there is $10 lost in the transaction. $10 goes to the company, who spends this money on something.

Where does this $10 go? Who has the $10?

Who Has All The Money?

Do the CEOs have all this money? What about the employees of the companies? What about the company’s suppliers? Their contractors?

Where exactly did all of this $700 billion go? Somebody has to be up in this game, but who?

I’m interested to hear your responses to this question, because this definitely goes above my level of understanding these credit-default swaps, etc.