Three time loser, Brightstar.

So Palin smoked pot legally, how does that make her better than the Clintons or the Bushes?

She had an affair with her husbands business partner.

She used her office to punish her brother in law, a police officer, a police officer...

She took earmarks and lied about it.

She took money for the bridge to nowhere and lied about it.

She has in incredibly narrow interpretation of the Christian religion.

But hopefully she'll throw that beast McCain out of Washington, so we can smoke pot, have adulterous affairs, use public office for private benefit, and sing praise the lord while we're doing it.

The rapid growth in financial services had to be met with a period of consolidation. In the 30's there were hundreds of car makers, then fewer, and finally there were three. The consolidation is not necessarily evidence of something worse in the economy.

The Fed made a big mistake in choosing to distribute risk throughout the economy, while they should have tried to isolate the problem. Treasury bills should be a safe haven, but instead Bernanke and Paulson have swapped good debt for bad. Placing interest rates below the inflation rate also drove speculators into gold and commodites, which should represent safe haven investments. The powers to be also have plans to punish those hoard cash, people who put money in their mattress. Mutually Assured Monetary Destruction guarantees there is no buyer of last resort.

Consolidation in Financial institutions only consolidates the debt. Its a bit like looking at a dollar bill and realizing it does not represent an asset, but a liability, and deciding, quite rationally, that one should rid themselves of their money, (and people have done that, remarkably).

For those who still have a few years, there is one thought, when the markets crash, if there is still any faith left at all in common stocks, buy gold company stocks, because they will represent the single best bull market idea for the rest of your still young lives. Confidence in fiat currency is being destroyed, and it will take several generations to restore that confidence. Gold will rule, when we finally hit bottom, but not before, and it may be that governments will have that gold, and they will acquire it much as they did in the 30's, through confiscation. Consider the pitfalls. Gold will collapse before the markets, and rise ahead of them.

The Dow has been holding at this 11K level for a time now, and that is a good thing. Pretty soon the market may decide the worst is over, and stage a real rally, which in no way will avert a recession or worse.

Local governments may resort to extraordinary measures, although Blackwater cops is a bit much. Who is going to pay them? How local governments react to this crisis is more important than what happens in Washington. Cities and counties are prevented by charter, from entering into deficit spending, however there are other means which accomplish the same ends. My fear would be that governments would see falling property values as an opportunity to condemn property for public works projects, and not so public works projects.

Should your home value fall 50%, what is to stop them from confiscating your house, at fair market value? The only real restraint is fiscal limitations, but if the government agency at the next higher level accepts public works bonds for improvement projects, such things are possible. In the end a recession or worse will only strengthen the power of government. The blackwater cops are my last worry, Emminent Domain, Charter City Covenants, and religious orthodoxy, and corruption at local government worry me a great deal more.

sure the economy is going well, don't be a surrender monkey

we win until we lose

Just because some guy was wearing a blackwater shirt doesn't mean he works for Blackwater. Blackwater's efforts to build a site in Portero, East SD county, were rejected. The California Prison Guards have started a recall against the governor.

People who are in their thirties will see the other side of this, and they will play a part.

After WWII many people thought the Depression would start again. (The stock market did not rally in earnest until 1981) Two or three generations to fix these problems does not seem unreasonable.

Does the team kicking a conversion have a choice about taking half the distance to the goal if the defense is offsides? Why not?