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Uhhh, I think they'll be screwing off somewhere else maybe !
An interesting view of the future indeed. It reminds me of the seasonal migration of the hippies in the very affluent '60s from Katmandu to Bali in the summer and back to Nepal for the beautiful winters. Who paid for that lifestyle? Indulgent (and affluent) parents, drug dealing, black market currency manipulation etc. Some of them never put in an honest day's work in their entire lives, and some of them are still there employed as oxygen thieves.
But, who do you imagine will support such a parasitic lifestyle during this spiraling economic crash? Get ready to work with your hands at whatever work you are lucky enough to find. Screwing around is not a survival skill.
Ah, another unhappy reality check in the stock markets today. And some thought we'd soon be busting our way through levels first set in...1999!! A daily 3% movement one way or the other seems common anymore. But it's not, and a symptom of some rather troubling instability in the markets as heaps of capital chase after relatively scarce productive opportunity.
SF Fed President Janet Yellin was pessimistically circumspect in a speech to a Salt Lake City community leaders forum today:
- The government has formulated a plan to put troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control, dismiss their top executives and prop them up financially, federal officials told the two companies yesterday...
- In an effort to contain the most profound financial crisis in generations, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., leaders of the Federal Reserve and other government officials have in recent months upended decades of precedent.
Unsustainable. It's a word that Americans--and Coloradans--had better get damned used to hearing. The speculative mortgage bubble--unsustainable. Real estate values--unsustainable. Wasteful energy use--unsustainable. Yeah, suburbia as we know it--unsustainable. Our automobile-centric transportation system--unsustainable (buried in all the bad economic news in the last couple of days is the story that the Highway Trust Fund is rapidly going broke, by the way).
The politicians don't dare admit any of this, lest they risk losing their constituencies to their opponents. So, both liberal and conservative candidates continue to live in and preach denial about what lies ahead. Liberals think we can spend our way back to sustainability and conservatives think that we can drill and cut taxes and get back to sustainability. They are both wrong, and Americans are going to pay dearly for their folly.
Let's start with the liberals. They have got to get over the idea that government can do everything for everybody. It can't even shoulder the load that it is now being asked to bear. Government spending is going to have to be pared back considerably--including for those sacred entitlement programs that nobody wants to touch. Social Security at 65 or 67? Forget it. It's going to have to be 75 or 77. Sorry, Boomers and Gen X'ers--the scene ain't gonna go down for you like you were promised it would.
Conservatives? Well, there is going to have to be tax increases--on the wealthy, on everybody. If there isn't, within a few very short years, all of the taxes that could be collected wouldn't even pay the interest on the national debt. Drill ourselves out of the energy crisis? Fat chance. At least half of our "new" energy is going to have to come from efficiency and conservation. Lower speed limits, smaller cars, mass transit, and bye-bye sprawled McMansions here we come.
For the American people--well, time to buck up, little campers. Materially, things are going to be much more austere for a LONG time--most likely for the rest of your life. We've been digging this hole of waste, overconsumption, non-productive investment, and debt for nearly four decades now--it's not going to go away overnight. You WILL have to pay off what you owe--and what the government has borrowed at your behest and on your behalf. Cha-ching. You actually WILL have to live within your means. Somebody else is not going to pay for your follies or financial recklessness.
Colorado is not going to be spared all of this economic ugliness. It has "partied hearty" right along with the rest of the country--if not more so--indulging in all of the excesses that have led us to this brink. My thinking is that the hard, hard crash of reality is going to hit shortly after the election--no matter who wins. Whoever wins is going to inherit one hell of a mess to try to straighten out. The losers of the election may very well wind up being the lucky ones.
In mid August, Treasury Secretary Paulson says they have no plans to bail out the GSEs (Fannie/Freddie), and on Sep 5th they're rolling out a plan. And even as the RNC is underway, with a platform that includes opposition to taxpayer funded bailouts, the sitting republican administration is now rolling out the mother of all bailouts.
They're cheats and liars, and the taxpayer is about to get gang raped.
I don't like Obama. He's a wet-behind-the-ears democratic demagogue that's done next to nothing in his time in the senate, and who voluntariliy sat there in church and listened to Wright spew racist hate, only quitting after it came up in the campaign. And Biden is well known for his own ethics problems and dishonesty, with a number of disproven claims during his failed presidential campaigns. But I dislike being lied to and robbed by the republican administration at least as much. A write in vote for Ron Paul seems more and more appropriate come Nov.
Jazz--I think UNSUSTAINABLE will be the word of the year for 2009.
To the chagrin of the drive across town to Home Depot for a new light bulb crowd, Jazzlover has written about the unsustainability of the US Highway system. Here is a quote from a recent article titled Highway Fund Shortfall May Halt Road Projects that talks about the Highway Fund running out of money.
WASHINGTON — An important account in the federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of money this month, a situation that could hamper completion of road and bridge construction projects across the country, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said on Friday.
UNSUSTAINABLE is likely be a hot buzz word well beyond 2009! It damn well better be.
Jazzlover wrote:
At least half of our "new" energy is going to have to come from efficiency and conservation. Lower speed limits, smaller cars, mass transit, and bye-bye sprawled McMansions here we come.
The politicians don't seem to get this part of the equation.
As long as I could sell my un-used gallons to gas-guzzling vehichle drivers at scalpers prices, I'd even be in favor of gas rationing. I'd like to see a system where everyone gets X number of gallons per week. It would provide a nice supplement to my regular income.
Bob from down south wrote:
A write in vote for Ron Paul seems more and more appropriate come Nov.
I'm with you on this....Lets' do it!
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 09-06-2008 at 08:30 AM..
In mid August, Treasury Secretary Paulson says they have no plans to bail out the GSEs (Fannie/Freddie), and on Sep 5th they're rolling out a plan. And even as the RNC is underway, with a platform that includes opposition to taxpayer funded bailouts, the sitting republican administration is now rolling out the mother of all bailouts.
They're cheats and liars, and the taxpayer is about to get gang raped..... Jazz--I think UNSUSTAINABLE will be the word of the year for 2009.
Is it JUST a coincidence that they're rolling out this rescue/takeover scheme on the very weekend that people won't be paying attention because they are hugely focused on both college football and NFL season openers?
I don't see SS going away as long as boomers have a vote.
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Federal Govt Very Close to takeover of Fannie & Freddie
