We talked about all this years ago.

It's not just the mortgage mess. It's about a whole slew of economic and fiscal irresponsibility:

The situation looks worse the more you look at it.

US Nobel Laureate Slams Bush Gov't as "Worst" in American History

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0729-06.htm

I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten World Economy

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/business/08FUND.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Bush drives the nation towards bankruptcy.

http://www.rense.com/general49/bankrupt.htm

Drowning, First-Class Style

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8019

American trade: hurtling towards the tipping point

http://www.unsustainable.org/view_art_un.php?AID=291

Some think the dollar has fallen too far. On the contrary, it has not fallen by enough

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2404984

Bush Wants To Bankrupt America

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3977.htm

Jobs Bloodbath to Come

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/37588278-1bb1-11d9-8af6-00000e2511c8.html

Derivatives Market Grows 20% to $170 Tln, BIS Says

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aR4pMAz.ogAA&refer=us

The global investment derivatives market is hedged to the tune of $170 TRILLION - with a 't', not a 'b'. In other words, the world's financiers have short-sold - i.e, mortgaged - the entire world economy five times over, just to keep it going and to give the planetary economic system the appearance of looking a lot better than it really is.

This collection of derivatives hedges is so gigantic that it can never be unwound.

I'd say the Plunge Prevention Team has it's work cut out for it.

Greetings Walter Map Glad you're here. Please comment more on these economic posts.

Hey, thanks, but where do I start?

Mostly I just try to keep up with the news, but the news is pretty bad. I'm not nearly so worried about what the Chinese might do to us as what we may have done to ourselves:

Hedge Funds May Pose a Risk to US Economy

Some 7,500 hedge funds controlled $1.6 trillion in assets as of the end of June. That's equal to about 10 percent of the total value of the New York Stock Exchange. Much of what they own was bought with money they borrowed from big banks, sometimes up to 80 percent of their holdings.

If the banks can't collect the debts that hedge funds owe because the assets that the funds bought turn out to be worthless, then the banks are in trouble. If the banks are in trouble, so is the economy.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080907I.shtml

Profiting From The Meltdown - Forbes.com

Deutsche Bank derivatives research has been warning clients for months that the leverage in the asset-backed market, especially the collateralized debt obligations set up to hold pools of subprime mortgage-backed securities, had far too much embedded leverage--up to 100 times too much.

http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/06/croesus-chronicles-indexes-oped-cz_rl_0807croesus.html?partner=daily_newsletter

America, the Can't-Do Nation

We're supposed to be an optimistic, problem-solving nation, the country that tamed a vast wilderness, won World War II and the Cold War, put men on the moon, built the Panama Canal and the Hoover Dam. But somehow, can-do America has become a joke, an oxymoron. We've become the can't-do nation, slipping on every banana peel on the global stage. Of course, we've had our share of failure in the modern era -- the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Vietnam War, the Iranian hostage crisis, two space shuttle disasters -- but the sheer scale of our current predicament is something different.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080201752.html

The good news is that if things really start falling apart then Bush will take over the government and then he'll be able to take care of us. He's just that kind of guy.

Central banks everywhere, including the Fed, are shoveling money as fast as they can at financial markets in the desperate attempt to prevent the rich from becoming less rich.

So much for "free-market capitalism". You knew that was a ruse, didn't you? The last thing wealthy capitalists want is a "free market".

It's really remarkable how the obscenely rich just can't cut it without massive subsidies from, well, you, for example. That's your tax money they're shoveling at those poor, poor obscenely rich people.

You know what I think? I think we ought to tax these guys.