One year ago today ...

[Tilted]

(1) Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy (the largest such filing in U.S. history). Wow.

(2) Bank of America announced that it would acquire Merrill Lynch, a move 'encouraged' by government officials and intended to prevent the impending bankruptcy of Merrill Lynch. Wow.

(3) AIG was scurrying about trying to find capital to resolve its liquidity crisis. By the following evening, the Federal Reserve will have announced the creation of an $85 Billion credit facility intended to prevent AIG from having to file for bankruptcy. Wow.

The DJIA closed down 504.48 points. And, the narrative was just beginning to be told.

In a month, the DJIA will have lost almost 3000 points. Soon, it will become apparent that the world we had been living in wasn't quite the world we thought it was. Soon, main street, and frankly a surprisingly large portion of wall street as well, will become aware of what everyone should have realized long before. Soon, the phony economy, the phony prosperity, the group delusion in which we had been living, will be revealed and we will be able to deny it no longer.

And yet, here we are a year later, and deny it is what we are still trying to do - insisting on doing. A year later, and we still won't own up to the reality that we aren't as prosperous a society as we want to pretend we are (we are perhaps the most prosperous society in all of human history - but apparently that's not good enough for us). A year later, and we are still trying to shove reality back into the little box that our group delusion has created to contain it. That's fine, we might get most of it back in there, bulging at the seems though the box may be. And, we might be able to go on pretending for a while. But, eventually reality will have its day, and we (and our children) will pay a heavy price for holding firm to our delusions - as obvious as they are.

 

[Larry Gude]

Bush warned in April '01 that we were headed for disaster with Fanny. He did nothing. McCain warned of the same thing around that same time. He did nothing. In fact, they both helped to make it worse.

Entitlement reform has been on the 'to do' list since Reagan; Nothing.

Bush actually added to the problem with his prescription plan. Not to be outdone, Obama wants to add a whole new class of entitled; everyone.

Bush betrayed this nation to it's core insisting Wall Street must be saved. From itself. And failed government. What he meant to say is "Hey, I insist on trying to cover my ass." In so doing, he opened Pandora's box and turned loose the people who at least have the decency to not try and call themselves conservatives.

Unless and until we, the people, actually hold our representatives responsible for at least a modicum of fiscal sanity instead of cheering our guys on for getting one over on the other guys, this will just continue. As long as we can cover the financing costs and keep attracting capital, that is how long we, as a nation, can keep on borrowing. As long as we do that, then we continue to be junkies hooked on buying back the money we send over seas.

 

[Tilted]

Bush warned in April '01 that we were headed for disaster with Fanny. He did nothing. McCain warned of the same thing around that same time. He did nothing. In fact, they both helped to make it worse.

Entitlement reform has been on the 'to do' list since Reagan; Nothing.

Bush actually added to the problem with his prescription plan. Not to be outdone, Obama wants to add a whole new class of entitled; everyone.

Bush betrayed this nation to it's core insisting Wall Street must be saved. From itself. And failed government. What he meant to say is "Hey, I insist on trying to cover my ass." In so doing, he opened Pandora's box and turned loose the people who at least have the decency to not try and call themselves conservatives.

Agreed, Bush betrayed the ideals he purported to believe in. Agreed, Obama is pissing on those very same ideals with an even greater intensity, though he never really, other than in superficial ways, claimed to believe in them. But, this story goes back further - we've been living a lie, and selling the future for a little more fun today, for quite a while.

Unless and until we, the people, actually hold our representatives responsible for at least a modicum of fiscal sanity instead of cheering our guys on for getting one over on the other guys, this will just continue. As long as we can cover the financing costs and keep attracting capital, that is how long we, as a nation, can keep on borrowing. As long as we do that, then we continue to be junkies hooked on buying back the money we send over seas.

How are we supposed to 'hold our representatives responsible for at least a modicum of fiscal sanity', when most of us haven't displayed fiscal sanity of our own? By and large, we have lived beyond our means - those at the top of the wealth spectrum, those in the middle, and those at the bottom. We've indulged the government in this delusion, and it has indulged us. We haven't wanted to confront reality, and we sure as hell haven't wanted government to force us to confront reality - we've wanted it to construct ever grander stages on which our delusions could play out. We are like 2 drug addicts living together, enabling each others addictions, telling each other that everything is fine - there's nothing wrong with us - we aren't gonna end up in the ditch, dead from an overdose - we've got it under control - we could quit if we needed to - we'll be able to stop when we have to - f all those haters who just don't understand us, man.

How are we supposed to hold the government accountable for its fiscal irresponsibility, when we are still in denial about our own fiscal irresponsibility? How can someone making $55,000 a year, who thinks they can afford to own a $250,000 home, and a $20,000 car, and carry $15,000 worth of credit card debt, and eat out 3 nights a week, and have a 50" flat screen, and whose model for fiscal viability is premised on the assumption that they'll always have the job they have now, possibly hold the government accountable for borrowing too much and spending too much? We like to complain about the mistakes that others (including the government) make, but we are unwilling to look in the mirror and confront the reality of the mistakes that we are making - and how they contribute to the problem - to the group delusion.

For the most part, we don't have real conviction about the things we preach to our government. If we did, we'd tend to our own affairs and address the parallel mistakes we make in our own lives, while we were complaining about the mistakes it makes. As it is, we just pretend that we aren't making them. Truth is, we love our enablers - we may cuss them out in order to feel righteous - but we love them nonetheless. We aren't about to shut them out of our lives, because we're still in the denial phase.

 

[Larry Gude]

Here is the primary, #1, 100% problem; campaign financing.

As long as banks and insurers and unions and associations and so forth own politicians, then they will get what they want be it buried in page 1,081, overt madness such as TARP, buying up GM, promoting a false god in global warming silliness and so on and so forth.

Everything else is lip service to 'we, the people.'

THAT is the nut that needs to be cracked. The solution is simple and it's an old idea; if it can not vote, it can not give any money to any politician, candidate or party. They are free as can be to appeal to you and I, buy up all sorts of ad space. They just can't promote me or oppose me.

When we matter again, the madness stops.


Now, how to get there from here?

 

[ProfMoneyWise]

How are we supposed to 'hold our representatives responsible for at least a modicum of fiscal sanity', when most of us haven't displayed fiscal sanity of our own? By and large, we have lived beyond our means - those at the top of the wealth spectrum, those in the middle, and those at the bottom. We've indulged the government in this delusion, and it has indulged us. We haven't wanted to confront reality, and we sure as hell haven't wanted government to force us to confront reality - we've wanted it to construct ever grander stages on which our delusions could play out. We are like 2 drug addicts living together, enabling each others addictions, telling each other that everything is fine - there's nothing wrong with us - we aren't gonna end up in the ditch, dead from an overdose - we've got it under control - we could quit if we needed to - we'll be able to stop when we have to - f all those haters who just don't understand us, man.

How are we supposed to hold the government accountable for its fiscal irresponsibility, when we are still in denial about our own fiscal irresponsibility? How can someone making $55,000 a year, who thinks they can afford to own a $250,000 home, and a $20,000 car, and carry $15,000 worth of credit card debt, and eat out 3 nights a week, and have a 50" flat screen, and whose model for fiscal viability is premised on the assumption that they'll always have the job they have now, possibly hold the government accountable for borrowing too much and spending too much? We like to complain about the mistakes that others (including the government) make, but we are unwilling to look in the mirror and confront the reality of the mistakes that we are making - and how they contribute to the problem - to the group delusion.

For the most part, we don't have real conviction about the things we preach to our government. If we did, we'd tend to our own affairs and address the parallel mistakes we make in our own lives, while we were complaining about the mistakes it makes. As it is, we just pretend that we aren't making them. Truth is, we love our enablers - we may cuss them out in order to feel righteous - but we love them nonetheless. We aren't about to shut them out of our lives, because we're still in the denial phase.

Probably no surprise but I agree with you completely. Or as a friend is known to say, "if you want an argument you are going to have to change the subject."

Well said. I just hope it is heeded by at least one person who reads it.

 

[Tilted]

With the two-year anniversary of Lehman's bankruptcy filing approaching, its former CEO Dick Fuld is apparently set to whine some more, this time to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission appointed by Congress to look into the notion of 'too big to fail'.

Sure, it's unfair that the fire department decided to save your neighbors' houses but not yours. Sure, it's unfair that they stood by and watched yours burn down (from your perspective, perhaps even tossed in the match that actually set off the inevitable blaze), then turned around and made sure the rest of the block didn't burn down - ostensibly to prevent the fire from spreading throughout the whole neighborhood and then community.

But, considering you and your friends had been recklessly dousing your house with gasoline and stocking it up with as much incendiary material as you could fit in there, perhaps it's time for you to stop your whining and save whatever dignity you might have left? Perhaps it's time for you to stop pointing fingers at others, a plausible point though you might have, and accept that you bear enough responsibility for the situation that you've no right to cry about the actions (or inaction) of others? Lever up baby, lever up - what could go wrong?


Fuld: Government Denied Lehman, but Helped Wall Street

 

[Larry Gude]

With the two-year anniversary of Lehman's bankruptcy filing approaching, its former CEO Dick Fuld is apparently set to whine some more, this time to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission appointed by Congress to look into the notion of 'too big to fail'.

Sure, it's unfair that the fire department decided to save your neighbors' houses but not yours. Sure, it's unfair that they stood by and watched yours burn down (from your perspective, perhaps even tossed in the match that actually set off the inevitable blaze), then turned around and made sure the rest of the block didn't burn down - ostensibly to prevent the fire from spreading throughout the whole neighborhood and then community.

But, considering you and your friends had been recklessly dousing your house with gasoline and stocking it up with as much incendiary material as you could fit in there, perhaps it's time for you to stop your whining and save whatever dignity you might have left? Perhaps it's time for you to stop pointing fingers at others, a plausible point though you might have, and accept that you bear enough responsibility for the situation that you've no right to cry about the actions (or inaction) of others? Lever up baby, lever up - what could go wrong?


Fuld: Government Denied Lehman, but Helped Wall Street

If the neighborhood is a bunch of shanty's built on sand, best let it burn down and rebuild properly. Fuld got cut loose solely because he wasn't GS. And, it was for no good reason. It wasn't even as a message to get everyone else to improve their community behavior. If anything, the only message was drink your Kewl Aid or we will shoot you.

:shrug:

 

[preselector]

THAT is the nut that needs to be cracked. The solution is simple and it's an old idea; if it can not vote, it can not give any money to any politician, candidate or party. They are free as can be to appeal to you and I, buy up all sorts of ad space. They just can't promote me or oppose me.

Now, how to get there from here?

That's a great start. A corporation is a legal fiction created primarily to protect the owners/officers from personal liability. Therefore corporations, including incorporated labor unions, should have no right to free speech.

Not only no money to politicians or parties, no corporate sponsorship of any event which includes partisan speech (basically apply Hatch Act rules to corporations), no corporate transportation of politicians, no free meals, and no inflation of corporate executive salaries to cover 'individual' donations. A law with some teeth.

Many years ago a retired Minnesotan politician wrote a book about funding from the milk industry. It went something like this:

MilkRep: We're not completely happy with your support.
Politician: What do you mean, I vote in your favor 80% of the time.
MilkRep: Our other politicians are doing much better than that.