Economic malaise

[mellanor]

I wait with a certain sort of horrified anticipation for the rest of the shit to hit the fan with the economy. This mortgage/securities fiasco is just the tip of the iceberg, and the credit market is going to cause an even bigger disaster if and when it goes belly-up. There are many securities backed by the credit market, and consider this: this

Comments

[profstark]

I feel exactly the same way. I feel very sorry for all the working-class people and the working poor that are going to be affected by the crisis (our parents among them, more than likely), but a part of me is also a little smug, because you're right, it does serve us (and by us, I mean everyone participating in a capitalist system) right! And I also loooooooove how all of a sudden socialism and nationalization of banks, etc., starts to look not so bad to people. Just like atheists praying in foxholes, as the old allegory goes -- as soon as the shit hits the fan, they turn to the very ideas they heaped scorn upon. I posted an article on facebook about how Marx's books are absolutely FLYING off the shelves in Germany right now because of the worldwide economic crisis.

I have the same sort of attitude about the crisis as is expressed in Tool's Aenima "I'm praying for rain. I'm praying for tidal waves. I want to see the ground give way. I want to watch it all go down."

Our attitude isn't going to win us any favors, fo sho. ha ha

[drhoss]

Well, that system you so despise is the backbone of the nation's economy. If that type of trading weren't around, you wouldn't have a car to drive...Ford and Chrysler (before they merged...or bought/sold...or whatthefuckever) were backed by huge amounts of nonexistent funding, and bolstered the confidence of investors by claiming a higher net worth based on those nonexistent funds. And if it hadn't been for the initial success of Ford, the auto industry would have been nonexistent itself.

Scary, for sure, and definitely dishonest, but hey...ask a Native American...he'll tell you that's the American way.

PS: Don't ask why I know that shit about Ford.

[mellanor]

We're talking about two different phenomena, here. What I'm talking about are companies having their assets backed by the credit market in general, which means their assets are essentially backed by the debts of random people (such as credit card debt), and are only stable so long as these random people actually pay off their debt instead of defaulting.

Basically, you're talking about companies supported by basic debt, money they owe to others. I'm talking about companies supported by the credit market itself, companies supported by debt owed by random unrelated people to random other unrelated people.