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oop!
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Posted: Tue Nov 4th, 2008 02:01 pm |
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oop!
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Posted: Tue Nov 4th, 2008 03:07 am |
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Tomorrow night will be another night to remember ,
Please vote with your mind and heart , do not look at race
Trust not the face and words of today , trust the man's past actions .
Last edited on Tue Nov 4th, 2008 03:08 am by oop!
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Brendan Buschi
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Posted: Tue Oct 7th, 2008 12:10 am |
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When the Titanic first hit the iceberg, I doubt if anyone knew what was about to happen. The sad truth is that regardless of whether or not anyone knew what was about to happen, what happened was going to happen anyway.
Our economy has hit an iceberg. I doubt if anyone could tell you just when that happened. There have been many indications that something was wrong, but we have labeled them and interpreted them on the fly and we have been wrong in every instance. No one has called it for what it was; the hull has been breached and the ship is sinking.
We have all witnessed the symptoms of a major breach. We’ve seen banks fail. We’ve seen businesses close. We’ve seen jobs disappear. We’ve seen corporate misconduct and crime. We’ve seen the cost of everything increase. We’ve seen record foreclosures. We’ve seen the value of all investments, including real estate, drop.
I think we have looked at each one of these events as unrelated. We’ve relied on our political leaders too much. We’ve ignored the water rising in the hold and the fact that the ship is floating lower in the water. We’ve continued to buy on credit and amass debt.
Even when we were confronted with horrific acts such as those of Oklahoma City and 9/11, we chose to rely on the wisdom of our political leaders. Actually, we chose to be pacified by empty explanations and promises.
It would not be totally wrong to compare us to substance impaired passengers on this great sinking ship. We have certainly been consuming legal and illegal substances in record amounts. We have certainly been unaware of the repeated failures of all of the solutions that our leaders have come up with.
After 9/11, we allowed our leaders to take us into a disastrous war without due research and deliberation. Our Congress approved flawed legislation in virtually no time at all. Now, after hearing repeatedly that our economy was sound, our leaders have approved a gigantic funding bill within days of hearing that our economy wasn’t sound.
I seriously doubt that any member of Congress knew much more about what was happening than any one of us. Nevertheless, they approved giving almost $1,000,000,000,000 to Henry Paulson, our Secretary of the Treasury. It took them about a week to decide to do this. Imagine that? We still have no idea how he is going to use this money which we did not have to give in the first place.
Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in over 4 years. About a year ago it was over 14,000. This record loss can only be described as phenomenal.
Does anyone really think that any of our leaders have a clue as to what is happening? Does anyone really think that we have seen the end to this avalanche of economic woe? Does anyone believe that any of the money men (bankers, investors, stock brokers, etc.) know how to fix this?
I suggest that the water our ship is about to disappear into is very cold and dark. A lot of people are going to drown. Those who survive are not going to come out of this unscathed. I am too young to remember the Great Depression, but I was raised by people who lived through it. If there was one thing they all seemed to agree on it was that “debt” is evil.
The Great Depression did not simply end. The economic chaos we experienced here at that time was not contained on our continent. That economic chaos was shared then as it is now by the rest of the world. That economic chaos led to World War II.
I don’t have any answers for what is happening now. I don’t think anyone does. No matter how much I would like to believe that someone does, I don’t think anyone does. I fear these events will play out much the same as the events on the Titanic did after it hit the iceberg.
I will take some comfort in not voting for John McCain who said “the fundamentals of our economy are sound” less than 6 hours before admitting that we were in an economic meltdown. However, given the magnitude of the crisis, any comfort may be transitory at best.
I know that despite what anyone tells you, there comes a time to pay the piper. I fear we are all about to find out what that really means. Being submerged in cold, dark water can have a sobering effect. It would be sad and ironic if the first truly sober awareness most of us have is that of drowning.
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