[Biglumpfish]

G Edward Griffin - Creature From Jekyll Island A Second Look at the Federal Reserve 42mins

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=65...g&q=bailout

[Zansho]

Actually, quite a lot of rich people are putting their money in cold, hard cash. They want the liquidity, even with the threat that inflation could run rampant and make their cash meaningless. I don't imagine we're going to have anything like the German mark circa 1922, but even rich people are getting very cautious about investing because, well, someone finally told them that the stock market is a fancier version of a casino. And, exactly as with a regular casino, the house always wins.

I was a little surprised to see the bailout defeated, but incredibly gratified. The truth is, regardless of a bailout going through or not, the American taxpayers will be footing the bill. Rather than, say, seizing the assets of the predatory "businessmen" and politicians who created the current crisis, it's always going to fall on the shoulders of the people who got fucked in the first place. They get us coming and going and, frankly, any American who hasn't realized that yet is living in a fantasy so profound that they may as well go build a city under the ocean (and allow it to be overrun by mutants and Ayn Rand).

The defeat, though, highlights the fact that some politicians have remembered that they're still supposed to answer to their constituents and, moreover, that quite a lot of us citizens are not happy about making it clear that we're footing the bill for a bunch of greedy assholes who've exploited the lot of us. In the end, the defeat of the bailout is meaningless. Our government will shore up failing banks and businesses regardless, it will increase socialization, and it'll present the bill to the taxpayers as usual. In the long run, having a legislated bailout is theoretically better than the haphazard approach that has been taken over the past several weeks as banks have failed. However, that assumption is based firmly in the notion that we have good reason to believe that our government knows what they're doing. Show of hands those among us, who are mostly young and poor, that seriously trust Congress and the White House to act in our best interests.

One thing I dislike about our current tax system is that we have so many loopholes, far too much complication than needed, and it tends to favor more people over others. Politicians use the good old boy system and scratch the backs of corporations and give them tax breaks and loopholes in exchange for campaign cash to get re-elected next term. Basically, the good people in Congress are giving the fat cats even more cheese to gorge on, and forgetting about WHO they REALLY are there for - the citizens of U.S. of A.

Maybe I'm too ideological. Maybe I'm wishing, that for once, we'd wake up and smell the coffee and get those corrupt nincompoops out of office and install people who will do something meaningful, and run the country in such a way that actually benefits everyone.

I've heard several solutions, most notably the flat tax. Flat tax based on your income would theoretically place more money in the hands of the lower/middle class and thus, allow them to spend MORE money, and stimulate the economy further. I've read some info and data on the topic, and looked at countries that installed a flat tax grow at a very respectable rate (Estonia, for example).

Here's a link if you're interested in reading: http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v29n4/cpr29n4-1.html

What this will do, however, is get money in the hands of people who really could use it, and eliminate the folks in Congress who pass "favors" onto corporations in exchange for the ability to get re-elected at some later point in time.

[cogila]

Lol, We are in a crisis because we didnt care about our country. If we cared we would never live outside our means. i.e. being in debt up to our eyeballs, allowing politictions into government that are extremely corrupted, not finding a different source of energy, not caring about our healthcare systems. and so on.

Wall street failed cause of deregulations allowed nice CEOs and other employees to buy fancy homes and boats and abuse a system that couldnt sustain that abuse. Also allowed Mortgage compaines like Fanny Mae to take high risks loans (into billions) to make a buck.

Here a good example RMT control prices over items on AH when or when a few christmas back everything was so inflated like buying SH for 8 million, then SE came in and banned all the RMTs well FFXI economy crashed. Nowadays SH is worth couple hundred thousand vs millions a couple years ago.

Think of Wall street like RMT and FFXI like our economy. lol When you abused a system it will crash.

I saw economy was going bad when fuel prices went up so fast. I just pray we dont hit a depression. Cause thats going to be 10x worst now then back in 1920s- 1930s.

All I can say is start caring about you country and world before we really are fk up for good.

[Vigilous]

Wall street failed cause of deregulations allowed nice CEOs and other employees to buy fancy homes and boats and abuse a system that couldnt sustain that abuse. Also allowed Mortgage compaines like Fanny Mae to take high risks loans (into billions) to make a buck.

Here a good example RMT control prices over items on AH when or when a few christmas back everything was so inflated like buying SH for 8 million, then SE came in and banned all the RMTs well FFXI economy crashed. Nowadays SH is worth couple hundred thousand vs millions a couple years ago.

Think of Wall street like RMT and FFXI like our economy. lol When you abused a system it will crash.

Your example seems to contradict what you are trying to say.

Also:

Lol, We are in a crisis because we didnt care about our country.

There's a difference between not caring for your country, and just being either plain stupid or plain stupid greedy. Consumers were stupid. Lenders were stupid greedy. Both thought they were caring for their country by taking part in what (used to) make our country so great: capitalism. A person who doesn't care for his or her country would essentially be one of those isolationists living in Montana or Utah (or where ever those crazies hide now a days).

[Biglumpfish]

Inflation widens the gap between rich and poor in my opinion.

I was always amused that the "elite" in this game would always condemn gil buyers. Elite players indirectly benifited from the increased supply of money in the game imo. Yet, they would scold the gil buying noobs but brag about all the gil they had.

[Cruzandercerberus]

Elite players would be elite players no matter what the gilbuyers do. Time is the ultimate MMO currency.

[motoh]

Inflation widens the gap between rich and poor in my opinion.

I was always amused that the "elite" in this game would always condemn gil buyers. Elite players indirectly benifited from the increased supply of money in the game imo. Yet, they would scold the gil buying noobs but brag about all the gil they had.

Someone listened too hard in economics and forgot that several critical elements of their cheap high school snoozer course don't exist in games. Scarcity, survival need, and weardown are all non players in FFXI, so there is no reason to equalize the income flows of players with RMT.

~M

[Biglumpfish]

Elite players would be elite players no matter what the gilbuyers do. Time is the ultimate MMO currency.

My point was they indirectly benefited but scolded the pratice of players buying gil.

[pathwriter]

God, who let Motoh come back?

[Seigrith]

God, who let Motoh come back?

I suspect it has something to do with the T-Virus.

[Vigilous]

No, smells more like G-Virus.

[Cruzandercerberus]

[Vigilous]

It's sad how true that image is, Cruz.