The financial meltdown

Non-Phish General
#137

Think cycles. This country went through shit like this at least twice before. In the late 1800’s didn’t they have to come down heavily on the likes of Carnegie and Vanderbilt because they were monopolizing industries, using their power and greed to control huge amounts of money.

So the government stepped in with regulation. Then the greed mongers went back to work to figure a way around the regulation, and lo and behold fifty years later, the stock market went belly up.

So the government stepped in with more regulation. Then the greed mongers went back to work to figure a way around the rgulation, and lo and behold, sixty years later you had the savings and loan scandal and the government had to bail out the S&L market with 2 billion dollars.

The cycle has been constrained now to twenty years (actually ten, if you consider the minor hiccup called the dot.com fiasco), but it’s certainly understandable because of the speed with which information and money is transferred in this new electronic environment.

Only this time, because our economy has become so integrated into this “world economy”, it’s taking more than just our government regulation, bailouts, and nationalization of the banking to get things back on track. This is a major re-adjustment of asset, and the middle class in this country will, as probably it should, be adjusted downward to meet the value of the middle class in other countries around the world.

Even though I’ve lost a considerable amount of the paper value of my 401K accounts, and at this point in my life should be worried about this, I can’t deny that I think this may be a good thing to stop the societal glut for material possessions that is a cultural weakness in my mind.

I’ve always thought that if we just stopped looking to buy things all the time, we might actually find some real time to enjoy the things that are free to us, like walks in the park with family and friends, and Sunday afternoon meals with people that you love.

I don’t know. But if you’re not one of the greed mongers, I don’t see how this meltdown can really make you ultimately unhappy.

#138

More on the political intrigue surrounding the meltdown…

Dominic Lawson: Democrat fingerprints are all over the financial crisis
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-democrat-fingerprints-are-all-over-the-financial-crisis-949653.html

Friday, 3 October 2008

Of all the characteristics of a successful politician, none is more essential than bare-faced cheek. Never has this been more evident than in the past fortnight, as senior Democrat members of the US legislature have sought to lay all the blame for the country’s financial crisis on the executive arm of Government and Wall Street.

Neither of these two institutions is blameless

#139

hey ICC, one of those vids is from the Onion, which is satire. it ain’t far from the truth though. but i just wanted to let you know cause i’m not sure if you knew that.

those MTV ads are reeeeeaally bizarre! i mean just fucked. are those real?

#140

haha…

#141

2.3 TRILLION dollars missing from pentagon. and the laughs continue…

[flash=350,287]http://www.youtube.com/v/y2xeeU0r8CM&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

#142

[flash=350,287]http://www.youtube.com/v/sowdK6vQ5pY&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

GREAT!!

#143

ok, everything’s fine now everybody.

#144

[flash=350,287]http://www.youtube.com/v/jB9fuIvksLw&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

everythings fine

#145

I just voted! Woohoo!

#146

^ tell me you wrote in Ron Paul or voted Chuck Baldwin or Cynthia Mckinney…

alas no, it was Obama/Mccain ticket you voted for, right breathes

#147

I tell nothing.

I like to keep subjects like politics and religion to myself.

I find no need to discuss these things with other people really, because it leads to nothing but disagreement and more than occasionally arguing.

So I voted for who I voted for, and I shall see if it made a difference.

Thanks kindly for making judgments about myself.

#148

I submitted a write-in vote for Fred Hoiberg.

#149

^^Ok calm down cowboy I was just teasin ya anyway…

WOW, your right I only talk to people about things that TRULY DO NOT MATTER, like Football, Baseball, Phish, pop culture. I hear ya brah…

#150

VOTING ALWAYS MAKES A DIFFERENCE (rigged or not), never forget that breathes

#151

Thanks kindly for making judgments about myself. You Enjoy Myself

#152

Maybe I am just not understanding… I think this is the case… but I know voting matters. I wasn’t being sarcastic earlier when I said I voted. I actually voted…

So… yeah. How about them aliens stealing all of our tax money?

#153

^Yeah the Paulson Ponzi Plunder Plan?? TOTAL FRAUD, yeah they might as well be aliens the way they’ve eaten the brains of the American Sheople through the expansion of the fraudulent credit bubble.

pisses me off I tell ya.

Is Ohio going to have the voter fraud again??

#154

Nah… I filled in my circles completely with blue or black ink.

#155

Actually, no election has ever made a been decided by one, two or even three votes. And if you’re a democrat living in Idaho, your vote won’t count at all even without it being rigged!! God Bless America!!

Stevo

#156

^Yeah, being a conservative (a REAL conservative, not a neocon) living in NY, my vote doesn’t make any difference either. Even though I’d rather see McCain win than Obama win, I still think McCain is awful and won’t endorse him with my vote. So I’m voting 3rd party.