The Practice: Mortgage brokers give anyone with a pulse money to buy a house, knowing they can sell the obligation to some nominally sophisticated bank... which will gladly snap them up, taking whatever "rating" done by Moody's or S&P's at face value, without any due-diligence of their own.

Result: failing economy leads to a decline of real (and even nominal, I suppose) wages, rendering people unable to pay their mortgage obligations.

This was caused by a Bubble? Sure, housing prices were going up in some areas, but by no means ALL areas. My home-state of Michigan suffered from huuuge rates of default, and by no means were housing prices going up when all these adjustable rate re-fis and mortgages were being offered to people.

This was caused by short-sighted stupidity, not a "Bubble" that has "burst."

That short-sighted stupidity is still there...

There is no simple solution.

There is a solution.

First, yes, stop buying so much worthless crap. Whether that definition includes premium coffee or not is immaterial.

Second, start looking at all your expenses and think of how they could be lessened and improved: health care, student loan payments, credit card payments, transportation, TAXES, Food costs...

Now, a lot of these are bigger than you. You can't fund a mass transit system on your own. You can't cut subsidies that keep US Food prices artificially inflated. You can't simply decide to restructure the public & private health system.

HOWEVER, you can take the time to study the budgetary data, write your elected officials, follow legislative efforts and conduct, get involved in the public arena. These things are all part of the public record. They are freely available to YOU.

I know it takes a lot of effort and *BOO HOO* it's complicated. You already work 40 hours a week...!

Sorry, but if you're not looking out for your own interests, no one will. Certainly not the government on any level - federal, state, or municipal.

Yes, the wealthy can afford people to do this for them. It's not fair. Life is not fair. There is no such thing as fair. But this is America! You can make a difference. You'll just have to take more of an initiative and work a little bit harder at it.

Otherwise, GFY.

As Amity so sarcastically noted:

If Americans really believed any of that commie nonsense, they would have learned some basic economics, gotten involved in politics, and fought for it themselves 10 or 20 or even 30 years ago. Instead we let professional economists tell us everything we need to know in Time magazine. Much less work!

That should show Nan Mooney and these socialist fifth columnists at Salon that they're out of step with the values of real Americans, who are proud to stand around some more and scratch their heads in confusion while being screwed into submission by the rich, rather than give in to some dumb ideal of government.

Here's the problem in a nutshell, a "case study" like they teach in Business school, if you will: How many people bitch about health care costs? Yet you know what the Big Pharmaceutical lobby did a couple years ago? Took away the states' ability to negotiate drug prices that would be supplied to recipients through state programs. This was one of the last few remaining cost control measures available that constrained an industry coddled with all sorts of government protection. Now the immediate compromise was that prices to current recipients would be frozen for 5 years. Therefore, the typical American sheep, who only see in the most immediate short term time frame, were in no position to complain.

If any PR campaign was mounted, it probably would've stressed how without this new legislation, Big Pharma would be UNABLE to COMPETE in the competitive marketplace. See, "Free Market Economics" is now just a PR euphemism for "We WANT a government handout." In practice, the bill passed was completely the OPPOSITE of what FREE MARKET ECONOMICS would have favored. It allowed these companies to even more effectively monopolize the market WITHOUT being forced to compete on price & quality.

There was, of course, some legislative opposition to the Bill. Why vote for someone or something that hasn't donated any money to your re-election campaign??? However, the lobbyists & corporate strategists knew EXACTLY how many votes were needed. I think something like 12 senators were bought out-of-hand. Those 12 ALL have $200,000+/year salaries at various big pharmaceuticals corporations.

None of this made the news until 60 Minutes did an expose WELL AFTER the bill had passed.

Few, if any, Americans learned about it, and fewer did anything about it.

YET, IN 5 YEARS, GUESS WHO IS GOING TO BE BEWILDERED BECAUSE THEY'RE NOW PAYING EVEN MORE FOR THEIR MEDICINE???

"DUH... THEY TOLD US THE FREE MARKET BRINGS PRICES DOWN. WHAT'S GOING ON???"

This is why the middle-class has stagnated. Bunch of self-satisfied idiots, who shy away from any real hard mental tasks, while desperately trying to convince themselves that they are upper-class.

Here's a tip: you're not. THEY have Lawyers and Lobbyists. THEY are looking out for themselves. YOU are blind.

Did he actually see Team America? If so, I'm guessing the satire went over his head.

"For the Republicans, Israel comes first."

I wonder how THAT would play in the Carolinas?

I was wondering the same thing, though I perhaps put it a little too inartfully.

How has the anti-semitic undercurrent that exists in rural America been ignored? Or maybe all the Pentecostal support for Israel (e.g. from the Rev. Hagee's of the world) has done away with it?

I'm thinking of all the conspiracy theory nuts that buy into the "Protocols of Zion" type stuff. As Neo-conservatives have courted these people to be their cherished, coddled voting bloc, they have to realize they are playing with fire.