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Re: Yes... (Reply to this comment)
by kengland4
Yeah, Vicfar. They think they're too big to fail. Which, as you've pointed out, is a socialist viewpoint, and counterintuitive to capitalism. These automakers will get their piece of the pie. They're just creating a little drama right now to eventually make it seem like it was a "long, drawn-out fight, a difficult decision, but in the best interest of the country-as-a-whole." Congress is bought and paid for by the lobbyists for these companies. They trot everyone out for a little song 'n dance in front of the media, when the understanding is that their perks, associations, and deals will dramatically change if they don't keep to the script. This is all so disgusting. One prominent forecaster expects that a 3rd political party will emerge victorious out of all this. And how long before that one ends up as corrupt as the others? God help us all...
Kevin
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Nov 14 '08
9:40 am PST
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Yes... (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
The big institutions can socialize their risk ("if you don't bail us out, the financial system will melt down"), whereas the payoffs, if any, go overwhelmingly to them. That's a nice political system, I'd say....
Excellent viewpoint
Vic
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Nov 12 '08
12:17 pm PST
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Re: thanks for this. (Reply to this comment)
by kengland4
Thanks for the kind words. I try to cut through the B* and see the truth of matters, unencumbered by the sauce the media lies on thick, and the masses eat right up. I see you have some political works of your own, and I'm going to enjoy perusing them..!
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Oct 21 '08
4:19 pm PDT
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thanks for this. (Reply to this comment)
by voxpoptart
Given the rather depressing, fact-free level of political conversation my wife I keep encountering this season, it's very nice to read a simple, accurate, useful bit of historical perspective written in mid-chaos. And a nicely fair one: you are correct: Hoover _was_ an extraordinary and good man, yet completely inadequate president. There's nothing at all contradictory about that. But your saying so is a level of just judgment i'd be delighted to see more of.
cheers,
- Brian
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Oct 20 '08
1:04 pm PDT
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Re: He or she who fails to study history will be doomed to repeat it (Reply to this comment)
by kengland4
None taken, mql1208. We need to think together, as a country, and critically compare this to historical parallels--even outside of the Great Depression.
Personally, I don't know anyone that overextended themselves, and falsified their income. However, the bankers knew what they were doing, as they lobbied for relaxed restrictions, and failed to cover their own butts by verifying these incomes, like dangling a carrot in front of a mule. Many of them made out like bandits, collecting bonuses, stock options, and what-not, fully expecting that Congress would bail them out because they were "too big to fail." So, lack of oversight, bad business, and expectation of subsidized bailouts to cover their bad decision-making, on a massive scale. No pure, efficient business would've let their i's undotted and t's uncrossed like that. I'm sure it's not that simple, but the fact that it happened on a massive scale, and is having global repurcussions, cannot possibly end up pointing any significant part of the blame on individual consumers--something very wrong happened at the high echelons of responsibility. Unsupportable risks were taken, and now the gamblers expect the common people to pick up the pieces, whereas the mantra told to the brainwashed common person is to "suck it up," and "be strong;" "You'll learn from the pain of this failure--it'll make you stronger." "Don't do it again." What hypocrisy
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Oct 13 '08
10:06 pm PDT
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He or she who fails to study history will be doomed to repeat it (Reply to this comment)
by mql1208
Hi Kevin,
No disrespect intended, but what about the simple rule, don't buy it if you can't afford it?
Do we not bear ANY responsibility?
Accepting credit which enables us to live beyond our means?
Buying homes which exceed our budget?
Certainly greed, corruption, deregulation, and lack of basic healthcare contribute, but if we should learn from history, that caveat should apply to all.
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Oct 02 '08
8:33 am PDT
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