Saturday, January 31, 2009

The real reason for the credit crunch

http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/cza1352l.jpg

Inspired by visiting Garth's new blog. Why waste a good Apocalypse?
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7 comments:

  1. I, CharlesiusJanuary 31, 2009 at 10:08 PM

    Agreed, C.One. Everything down here is recyclable, so why not put it to good use and recycle a depression?

    Shy of a year ago, on Garth's political blog, I posted links which stated there was going to be a financial takedown, although no one knew how bad it was going to be.

    Fast forward to now, and almost everyone realizes what has happened, although no one can put their finger on it, and it's picking up momentum. So, why is this happening?

    Greed, plain and simple. Sheeple bought McMansions, borrowed as if there were no tomorrow and expected to live The Life Of Riley. Except The Piper calls the tune now.

    However, something completely different . . .
    ------
    Truck for Sale (true and quite recent)

    Pic of shiny new, blue truck

    A sixteen year-old boy came home with a new Chevrolet Avalanche and his parents began to yell and scream, 'Where did you get that truck?!' He calmly told them, 'I bought it today.'

    'With what money?' demanded his parents. They knew what a Chevrolet Avalanche cost.

    Well,' said the boy, 'this one cost me just fifteen dollars.' So the parents began to yell even louder. 'Who would sell a truck like that for fifteen dollars?' they said.

    'It was the lady up the street,' said the boy. I don't know her name -- they just moved in. She saw me ride past on my bike and asked me if I wanted to buy a Chevrolet Avalanche for fifteen dollars.'

    'Oh my goodness!,' moaned the mother, 'she must be a child abuser. Who knows what she will do next? John, you go right up there and see what's going on.'

    So the boy's father walked up the street to the house where the lady lived and found her out in the yard calmly planting petunias!

    He introduced himself as the father of the boy to whom she had sold a new Chevrolet Avalanche for fifteen dollars and asked to know why she did it.

    'Well,' she said, 'this morning I got a phone call from my husband. (I thought he was on a business trip, but learned from a friend he had ran off to Hawaii with his mistress and really doesn't intend to come back).

    'He claimed he was stranded and needed cash, and asked me to sell his new Chevrolet Avalanche and send him the money.

    'So I did.'

    (Are women smart or what?) I love it!
    ------
    Wholly Moley! 'Tis I, Le Grand Legend In My Own Mind. Yes women will always be streets ahead of us, no question of that!

    THOUGHT FOR THE DAY! (Courtesy wrh.com) . . .

    "If the business community and political elite want to go to war they find it easy to mobilize domestic consent." -- Edward S. Herman, economist, author, and US media and foreign policy critic, Z magazine June, 1999

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  2. Comrade OneFebruary 1, 2009 at 12:25 AM

    Evenin' Charlesius,

    Setting realities aside, I was havin' a spot o' fun with Garthco. When I pop over to browse these days I am struck by the theme of doom, never mind gloom, so many go straight to the doom.

    A finer group of Squirrels has rarely congregated in one place before. They had better be on the lookout for the Beverly Hillbillies. Squirrel gun was their weapon of choice.

    Befo', it used to be just us nutz, but then the squirrels came and the nutz had to break away and form their own sect. The Branch Comradian.

    The advantage to Branch Comradian is that at no time will everyone be asked to gather together and instructed to drink special koolaid.

    Almost forgot, the wmv file came through. Finally.

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  3. Comrade OneFebruary 1, 2009 at 1:02 AM

    Fun aside Charles, I agree with your statement regarding greed. I have written comments many times about not only the human greed factor, but those playing peoples greed, naivety and short memories. Greed of course is what motivates them to do so, and greed understands greed, so it's a cake walk for them. All they need is the necessary funds to flood the various advertising mediums with buy now pay later and other such approaches. Then peer pressure and keep up with the Jones kicks in and does much of their dirty work for them.

    Another unfortunate consequence of all that is people who try to be really fiscally conservative are often regarded poorly by so called peers. Sometimes shunned, sometimes merely given the poor needy cousin treatment. One of the saddest repercussions is youngsters being ostracized in school and among peer groups if they don't have all the gadgets and trappings.

    I blame a lot of our social problems on these things as so many people feel pressured to acquire and spend so much that living on one income is no longer an option. That in turn creates it's own set of never ending problems with relationships, questionable parenting and people seeking the meaning of life via stuff. Then the rest of the new system kicks in trying to put social nets and organizations in place to deal with the fallout. In reality, they are like a bunch of social paramedics running around trying to stick bandaids on the wounds to slow the bleeding.

    This is another very large subject of course, as there is not just one factor bringing all of this about.

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2009 at 10:39 AM

    Nothing like being entitled to your entitlements -

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/nyregion/31bonuses.html?_r=1&ref=business

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  5. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2009 at 10:49 AM

    More Sunday morning reading - Greg Palast sizes up Obama:

    http://www.truthout.org/013009R

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  6. Comrade OneFebruary 1, 2009 at 2:02 PM

    Re: entitlements;

    "“People come here because they want to work hard and get paid a lot for working hard,” one investment banker said Friday as he wended his way, lunch bag in hand, through the World Financial Center. “I think there’s a disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.”

    And,

    “My bonus is ‘shameful’ — but I worked hard to get it,” said John Konstantinidis, a wholesale insurance broker, lunching Friday at Harry’s at Hanover Square.

    -----------------

    I think there is and has been a disconnect between Wall St., Bay St etc. plus Western Governments from reality of life for good a long time.

    You really struck at the heart of the matter with this one Herb.

    Then there is this;

    "Second of all, losses move unequally, so the law of the jungle should still apply: you eat what you can kill."

    Yes, I know.

    Remember the movie Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy?

    How I would love to see these people, making their living for 5 years in farming, as an independent contractor or a construction worker in China. Then they could tell us about entitlements.

    Just because the weather was bad, or governments made a decision favoring corporations or people such as those the article is about, created a myriad of ponzi schemes, doesn't mean the people involved in other walks of life didn't work really really hard, and make great sacrifices. Sometimes including their health or their families.

    Their yakking about Socialism is almost funny in a sick sort of a way. At the end of the day, it's time to change the prey. I was thinking about that this again morning as I sat on my Throne. I do my very best thinking there. If they don't like Obama, God how they would hate me.

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  7. LKFebruary 2, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    Hey Comrades! '21st Century Socialism as the answer to our Capitalist woes' is making it's case heard in Davos. Fired up?

    ReplyDelete

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