patrick.net

Kill the bankers!

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

hrhjuliet says

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

Nobody understands how our economy is structured and that's how the rich would like to keep it.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=qoj

blue is wages

red is annual consumer debt take-on, right axis

Shows the 2002-2006 period was a stupendous bubble where global growth -- including over $1T in US wages -- was created via sheer suicide consumer debt take-on.

Everyone STILL thinks the problems started in 2008, that the crash was the cause.

BULLSHIT. The crash was an effect. The cause was and is the hollowing-out of our economy and the rise of the rentier.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GINIALLRH

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CP

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NETEXP

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/FDEFX

are the four horsemen of our so-called economy.

If The System had done nothing in 2008-2009 the nightly news would have been filled with Lehman-style blow-ups -- Citi, BAC, WFC, everything -- since everyone had made loans that weren't going to be repaid.

This is a cross-default collapse similar to the end of Fight Club.

People in gold and other hard assets happily say 'let it burn!' but everyone else with money in the bank, 401ks, or pension plans would have gotten wiped out a la the 1930s.

I don't have any answers as to where to go from here so we're all just going to have to sit back and watch things evolve/devolve.

Japan has shown the system can be crazier longer than the observer can remain sane.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GGGDTAJPA188N

hrhjuliet says

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

Declaration of Independence:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Did the Declaration of Independence just tell the Constitution to SUCK IT.

A people get the elected government they deserve. You want a smarter system, find a smarter populace.

Then again, not sure anyone on the planet is doing all that well. Germany is probably #1 on most measures, but it's no Shangri-La there.

I thought Japan was doing OK, and they are by many measures, but they've painted themselves into a fiscal corner worse than us.

it's all money they owe themselves so in the larger analysis their colossal quadrillion yen debt is neither here nor there, just tax cuts they made and called it savings.

nb, counting our $4T intergovernmental debt, we're right up with Italy now:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GFDEGDQ188S

Taxes have to double here, across the board. Population won't stand for that. Hence the bullshit we have now.

How people think we can blow an extra $5T on military adventurism 2002-2010 and not pay for it is mind-boggling.

hrhjuliet says

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

Nothing, not enough people are screwed by the system just yet for them to organize a revolt. And on top of that, the same assholes that screw the entire country over like to call everyone else losers.

you want to stop the screwing, work for a balanced budget amendment.

Money that is borrowed can and SHOULD be taxed/tariffed instead.

Borrowing is just a way for government to avoid making unpopular decisions, plus government bonds are a great way for the wealthy to buy-down their future tax burdens.

I defend Krugman on occasion, but Keynesian stuff is largely bullshit, treating the symptoms and not the root causes of instability.

Any ghetto flip cellphone from 3 years ago has more computing power than all of the computers around in 1950. We should know by now what the economy is actually doing, and why. That we don't is because economists aren't paid to figure out what is going on, they're paid to lie about it.

HEY YOU says

hrhjuliet says

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

Declaration of Independence:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Did the Declaration of Independence just tell the Constitution to SUCK IT.

Why yes, it did.

FortWayne says

hrhjuliet says

Why do we allow this? What can we do to stop the hijacking of our country?

Nothing, not enough people are screwed by the system just yet for them to organize a revolt. And on top of that, the same assholes that screw the entire country over like to call everyone else losers.

Probably the case, but there were a lot of people involved in the occupy movement and a lot of what Patrick Stewart named the "working majority" silently cheering them on, but were too busy working to occupy anything but thier cubicle. Maybe the grassroots should start now?