re: Eventually the Bushites will get around to a rescue plan that addresses the actual causes of the fiasco

I do not see any way for Bush or anyone else to stop the very necessary deleveraging process. You might as well try to stop gravity.

I firmly believe that the task ahead is one of survival. What comes out of the ashes of this is impossible to predict.

We've reached the event horizon.

This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen:

The Weather Underground

For anyone who DOES care to understand the context and mindset within which Ayers operated in the 1960s, I highly recommend this DVD.

It is available on Netflix as an instant view or DVD.

Do you see any pathway that we can take, or a specific (or even general) plan?

I am certainly not an economist, but it seems to me that we are fist looking at the utter destruction of the existing economic system.

I believe, therefore, that before we can build anew, we must first simply survive, which is all that I can see in fromt of us now.

Your thoughts, old friend.

re: There are people who can afford to take massive hits to their wealth.

The problem is, the other 99% will be starving.

re: Not any more

Ugh.

This could get ugly.

Weird ugly.

:(

re: The answer is higher taxes on the wealthy, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and putting that money into massive infrastructure upgrades. That would reduce the deficit and provide well-paying jobs that can't be sent overseas.

The government’s finances not only are out of control, but the actual deficit is not containable. Put into perspective, if the government were to raise taxes so as to seize 100% of all wages, salaries and corporate profits, it still would be showing an annual deficit using GAAP accounting on a consistent basis. In like manner, given current revenues, if it stopped spending every penny (including defense and homeland security) other than for Social Security and Medicare obligations, the government still would be showing an annual deficit...if the annual deficit is beyond containment through standard fiscal actions, then the United States has no way to grow out of this shortfall...From the Fed’s standpoint, it can neither stimulate the economy nor contain inflation. Lowering rates has done little to stimulate the structurally-impaired economy, and raising rates may become necessary in defense of the dollar...By the time hyperinflation kicks in, the economy already should be in depression, and the hyperinflation quickly should pull the economy into a great depression. Uncontained inflation is likely to bring normal commercial activity to a halt.

http://www.shadowstats.com/article/292

Talk about a fart in a hurricane!

Thanks for taking the time to answer Robert Franklin. I assumed that he would follow the link to the article and read through it. But, apparently, he did not.

Your answer was masterful, as usual.

Now, here, for the infotainment of everyone, is another juicy tidbit:

Banks Are Likely to Hold Tight to Bailout Money

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/business/17bank.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

So, all of that money Paulson stole from us and is pumping into the banks is not going to ease credit one iota.

Not that it could.

re: The policies proposed in the 2004 Budget are projected to see the deficit widen steadily to 17.5 percent of GDP by 2050.

Of course, even this number is very low, because DeLong (I believe) is, like Robert Franklin, using the GDP numbers put out by the government which, as you know, are wildly off.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data

Additionally, since this was written several years ago, it does not take into account the trillions more $ that have been spent since, nor does it take into account that the GDP by any measure is likely to be much lower than was projected when he wrote the article.

"It will be extremely difficult to reduce the debt we're creating," said former Congressional Budget Office director Rudy Penner. "The long-run budget problem is rapidly becoming a short-run budget problem."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/10/12/MN7813DJJ2.DTL

Behind Colin Powell's Legend

Robert Parry & Norman Solomon

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Political/Collin%20Powell_Legend.html

The Resort to Force

Noam Chomsky

http://www.chomsky.info/books/hegemony03.htm

...better read this:

Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'

14 reasons Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy

http://tinyurl.com/5hyd4d

While it is not totally original, drawing upon Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine and the essay, Fascism Anyone?, by Laurence W. Britt, it is nonetheless important -- and quite a shock, since it is published in Rupert Murdoch's MarketWatch.

I would also humbly point to my own post of September 14, 2007, right here on Salon:

http://tinyurl.com/6qzbjt

May I also suggest this documentary from the mid-1990s, available for viewing on Google:

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936

A marathon viewing experience, for sure, but lots of good historical insight into how the money changers have schemed in various times and places to control the issuance of a nation's currency.

"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws."

-Mayer Anselm Rothschild