Unlike bankers in the West, who clearly did not understand the complex financial instruments but did not want to appear unworthy of their office. Though there were those who were saying "The Emperor has no clothes!", I was one of those saying, "I can't see the Emperor's clothes."
Whenever someone says "complex financial instruments", I take the safety off my Browning. Subprime mortgages and Collateralized Debt Obligations are the financial equivalent of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
Good point, I’ve met a few of these investment bankers before and when they start speaking in such complex terminology I often wondered if they really knew what they were talking about or did they memorize the Goldman Sachs sales pitch talking points plan. Since they knew I was equally clueless they might have pretended to look intelligence by acting like snobs.
Not understanding a prospectus or potential investment is an excellent reason to avoid investing. It could be that it actually is incomprehensible. Greedy people see the purported return, and only that. Insecure people and arrogant people can’t admit an inability to understand. Complexity for complexity’s sake usually conceals any number of pitfalls. See any proposed law in the past decade for a prime example. See any common scam for another. Dazzle ‘em with bs. Enough fall for it, every time, to reward the effort.