Another TGRR prophecy comes true.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

The Depression was caused by the shock of moving from the gold standard to a fiat currency.

No it bloody wasn't.  It was caused by people being able to borrow against their mortgages to buy stock on margin.  Thus, a minor market crash wiped out the net worth of 25% of the middle class.

That doesn't fit with my j00-based conspiracy algorithms. Take your facts to someone who wants them, sir.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The Depression was caused by the shock of moving from the gold standard to a fiat currency.

No it bloody wasn't.  It was caused by people being able to borrow against their mortgages to buy stock on margin.  Thus, a minor market crash wiped out the net worth of 25% of the middle class.

That doesn't fit with my j00-based conspiracy algorithms. Take your facts to someone who wants them, sir.

[Diseris]

Dumb question: Where are the asshats who made a killing off of this subprime loan shit?

Dubai!
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NDg4MDE4Mzg5

[Faust]

the talk has started over on sa. nerds shitting themselves is funny,
also the guy who mistook the thread for the y2k bug was good.

[Idem]

oh lord

[Cain]

I thought the Great Depression was solved by good old Keynsian economics?

Never mind that wont work now, because the US government and the US people are in so much debt neither can be billed for the sort of measures needed to create jobs and cash flow.

[LMNO]

The hilarious part is that Bush is getting ready to dole out up to $2,000 in cash to American families -- even the middle class -- just to keep them spending.

Spitting in the desert.

Hey, that's Obama's plan, as well.



You want to know what I find funny?  Every financial planner you talk to stresses the importance of saving your money, the news constantly yammers about credit card debt, yet economists constantly freak out when spending goes down.

[AFK]

I find the easiest way to avoid credit card debt is to not have a credit card.  We have one at Lowe's and I think we've used it exactly once to buy a couple of appliances, paid it off months ago. 

I think there is a lot of half-assed, empty lip service paid to the ideas of saving and spending wisely.  While it is in the individual's best interest, it doesn't seem to me that it is really meaningfully reinforced.  Yet, even a recession won't cure many in American society for their need to have things that they really can't afford. 

I have a shred of sympathy for people who got into this sub-prime nonsense, but seriously, if you know you aren't going to be able to pay for the house, don't buy it.  The American Dream^tm doesn't become any more real just because you own a house.  sheesh. 

[Cain]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/22/businessqandas.marketturmoil

For those who want to recap what happened.

[Diseris]

Don't forget to sell, Mortimer, Sell!!

[Darth Cupcake]

Quietly, I start biting my finger nails and whimpering in fear.

[Jasper]

Quietly, I start jacking off with glee.

[Cain]

Quietly, I start organizing mobs to hang bankers, with much mirth.

[Richter]

Quietly, I start noting bulletproof walls and caches of nonperishable food.

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

Quietly, I start preparing to revel in the US's future as a third world nation, and contemplate a quick drive to Detroit to get used to it.