If it Smells Like Poop.....

...chances are it is. And that's exactly how I see the whole collapse of the "banking industry" and the bail out that's supposed to put it back on it's feet. Now, I know I am not an economic expert, however, the way I see this is, we let the fox in the chicken coop and he decimated the chickens. Now he's back with his tail between his legs asking us to put more chickens in the coop and then just leave him alone and everything will be ok. I think not, especially when those chickens are costing 700 billion dollars.And what will there be for the families out there who have lost their homes, or who are on the verge of losing them? As far as I can see, nothing. I'll also admit I don't know a lot about the last depression; however I do know that Hoover tried a very similar bail out plan then, and it didn't work. You can't take nothing and make something from it, and the whole financial sector was mostly made up of smoke and mirrors; trying to make something from nothing. John said yesterday that world wide one hundred thousand trillion dollars (and that means nothing to me; I'm still trying to get my head around 700 billion) is in derivatives. That's more than the GDP for the whole planet! And none of it, as far as I can tell, is real! It's total insanity, and they just want more money to continue it for a few weeks until after the elections. And that's all this bail out plan will do.

Anyway, I say tighten the belts and let it fall now.Make no mistake, we are going to have to assume a lot of the bad debt, and we're going to go through a painful time, but unfettered capitalism my ass! Wall Street shouldn't get a damn thing; if we're going to start doling out money then lets do some of the things FDR did. How about we start on the infrastructure of this country? A lot of people can be put to work in good paying jobs that way. And what about all the green jobs that can be created? And the homeowners that are about to be foreclosed on? Lets step in and renegotiate those loans to a low interest rate so the can stay in them. And then lets re institute the regulations on the banking industry! I think the last 25-30 years have shown that an unfettered free market is NOT the salvation of the world. One time I was upset about something and Melissa said that spitting on Milton Friedman's grave might make me feel better; well it's time to collectively spit on it, and then inscribe some sort of warning on his headstone so we don't let this happen again!

Oh, one of the things that was a bit funny was John trying to explain to Sio how this whole thing came about. He tried various ways, and explained to her what a Ponzi scheme was, but she just couldn't get it. She kept saying things like "Why would people invest in things that aren't real?" and "I thought these guys were supposed to be really smart, right?" I think the only thing she understands is that her generation is probably going to be left totally bankrupt and owing trillions of dollars to China. And she's already so cynical, this just shows her that she's right to be.