Trumpeting a credit crisis when larceny is the culprit

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2667.shtml


As the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange stops ringing at the end of each session, there is this Chatty Cathy doll that makes this signature remark at America’s business news channel: “Do you know where your money is?” One might want to ask this “Money Honey” Maria whether she is referring to real or imaginary money; or both.

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Einstein opened the universe to us with a rather simple equation (formula), e=mc². And it’s beginning to look as if in the world of economics, debt or credit can also be brought down to a simple equation that defines where we stand in the monetary universe; where the “paper value outstanding,” all floating around the world over burners of hot air, can be 4, 6, 8 or more times the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the entire globe. I don’t know what that formula should be, or the econometric model required to arrive at it, but I have reached the conclusion that under our capitalist system, one with few or no controls, debt -- imaginary and real -- is turning out to be simply a function of larceny, or D=f(L). And even more inconceivable to me is that we don’t seem to understand or even care, putting ourselves at the mercy of financial predators and a government that is fiscally irresponsible, only concerned for those in society who represent power and monopolize wealth. Outstanding paper debt in excess of 4 or 5 times GDP is, in my estimation, likely to catapult us into a level of unconscionable risk, and deep recession.

But hey, we are already there! Depending where you get your numbers, the world is fast drowning in debt -- imaginary money that travels at wire-transfer speed -- most particularly here in these United States. An annual global GDP of about $60 trillion has been “derivatized” one way or another by a multiplier of at least 7, perhaps 8 ($450-500 trillion appears to be the range); and if that isn’t economically suicidal, someone please tell me what is. In this new version of the Ponzi scheme, carrying the imprimatur of most governments around the world, many will get seriously hurt, some by virtue of their own greed tilting their leveraged debt on overvalued assets, others by being caught as innocent-bystanders in the great spiral of mismanagement by those long thought to be institutional low risk-takers -- starting with the epitome of conservatism: pension funds.

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In the United States we may be hard-pressed to accept this moment of reckoning since we’ll probably be affected two or three times as hard as people elsewhere in the world. For one thing, if there is any bailing out, we’ll have to do it on our own, and no longer count on America’s most exclusive and profitable export since it is unlikely to find itself without any significant market in the world. No, we are not referring to weapons; or technology; or commercial aircraft; or entertainment . . . for the most profitable export in recent times has been of the intangible variety and one which requires neither labor nor material . . . only wizardry and salesmanship in presenting highly overvalued debt paper, and a currency to match. Many Americans were probably fuming a couple of days ago when Iran’s Ahmadinejad, at the OPEC meeting, stated that the American dollar wasn’t worth the paper it was written on -- irritation being probably his intent -- but his pejorative proclamation wasn’t really that irreconcilable from the truth.

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There are trillions of dollars playing musical chairs and the music is about to stop; and from here one can see that many of the chairs are as imaginary as the phony capital that is about to sit on them. It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride . . ."Maria, do you know where your money is?”

It isn’t a credit crisis we are living through, but a two-decade larceny crisis. Instead of authoring “The Age of Turbulence,” Alan Greenspan should have opted for his very own confession, calling it “The Age of Larceny.”
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They were the ones who went out and spent beyond their means, maxxed out the credit cards, cashed out their homes like they were ATMs. Yes, the scenario was set up by corporate America to part good money from the foolish, but with just a little bit of forethought and wisdom, you didn't have to be one of the suckers.

Even as we speak, with the dollar falling, prices rising, the markets in a slo-mo freefall, millions of people are out right now racking up their debt, trying to fill that void in their soul with more and more material goods. This is the fault of the individual, not the corporations.

TV kool aide is powerful

not everyone has the means to see reality

Really now, millions of people out there like myself who watch TV, see the same shit everybody else does, and didn't buy into the consumer madness. Did somebody put a gun to peoples' heads and demand that they buy that fifty inch HDTV on credit? No, they just simply decided that they wanted it, and would put it on plastic and worry about the consequences later. Well, now the consequences need to be paid and these people are crying out "I wuz fooled, TV made me buy that shit!" No, sorry, that's not an excuse, that's a cop out. If you can't read the balance on your CC bill, or the fine print on your first, second, or third mortgage, then what the fuck are you out there spending beyond your means for?

What's sad is that all this over-consuming idiots are going to drag the rest of the country down with them, including those of us who used our heads for something besides a hat-rack. We are going to get to pay the full price, while they will get bail outs, like the ones now being proposed for the ARM madness.

Play by the rules, do the right thing, make intelligent decisions and get screwed anyway. Gee, thanks:eyes:

nt

Even Faux news viewers know how to read a credit card statement. Even they should know how to keep track of their budget. Instead, they decided that they had to have the latest whatever, and overspent themselves getting it. And like I said, now we'll all get to pay for their stupidity.

nt

who didn't listen to the "Don't keep up with the Joneses" mantras going back to the 50s. And who eagerly bought the propaganda of owning shit equalling some sort of Nirvana.

And the ones who kept screaming to keep the price of electricity low so they could keep their lights on 24 hours, or keep the price of gas low so they could keep their gas guzzlers, or kept using more and more land for fewer and fewr housing units...

It goes on and on-- when offered choices, we take the most convenient onea, which are often the most wasteful and eventually the most expensive.

So, go ahead and keep blaming the crooks for offering us those choices and watch nothing change.

translates into the function of larceny and not consumer debt. Compare any day the financial alchemy called “governmental” accounting to your budget at home.