Say Anything Blog

Where’s my bailout for the net worth I lost back in 2000 to March of 2003, caused by the Clinton/Gore tax increases, tech bubble and algore’s Y2K fiasco?

No Free Lunch

I watched a news article on this several months back down here in the Twin Cities.  A guy was going to a house to repossess the house.  It was a relatively expensive house, something like $350-400,000 and parked out front was a luxury car and a Hummer H2.  Extended themselves too far without thinking of the long term consequences.  Something that I think credit card companies have trained a lot of Americans to do.

This is about bailing out the mortgage lenders who give money to the politicians.

1% of Americans pay 40% of the income tax.
5% of Americans pay 60% of the income tax.
10% of Americans pay 70% of the income tax.

Something that I think credit card companies have trained a lot of Americans to do.

Yes, in those training centers where the people are forced to attend at gunpoint.  /sarcasm

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

Well, guessing that the Fed is going to bail you out has historically been good business, and that fact had to have weighed on the minds of those underwriting those loans.  It’s not like the Fed is going to allow deflation or anything when loans go bad and contract the money supply, after all.

Yes, in those training centers where the people are forced to attend at gunpoint.  /sarcasm

They’re called homes and universities/colleges.  Students are often given credit cards and it’s often implied that it’s free money.  No one, from parents on down, seems to teach how to budget anymore.  And it’s not something they seem to learn by the time they’re out looking to buy a house.

it’s often implied that it’s free money.

I’m going to call you on that one.

1% of Americans pay 40% of the income tax.
5% of Americans pay 60% of the income tax.
10% of Americans pay 70% of the income tax.

Who would have thought that deregulated financial markets would be unable to regulate themselves? Me! Looks like ol’ uncle Milty was wrong yet again.

This reminds me of a quote I saw the other day:

Why will capitalism always survive? Because socialism will always be used to save it.—Ralph Nader’s Dad

“Keynes had located the fundamental defect of the free market system in its incapacity to distinguish between `speculation’ and `enterprise.’ Hence, it had a tendency to be dominated by speculators, interested not in the long-term yield on assets but only in the short-term appreciation in asset values. Their whims and caprices, causing sharp swings in asset prices, determined the magnitude of productive investment and, therefore, the level of aggregate demand, employment and output in the economy. The real lives of millions of people were determined by the whims of ‘a bunch of speculators’ under the free market system.”—Prabhat Patnaik

The free enterprise system is the natural order of things, when people are free to make free choices in a market where they own the means of production and the capital, and where they are free to do what makes sense for them.
Socialism always fails because it’s totalitarian, and the human spirit yearns to be free.

As far as Ralph Nader’s dad is concerned, the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!

The free enterprise system is the natural order of things…—Robert108

Says who? I hope you have some evidence to back that up.

“Keynes had located the fundamental defect of the free market system in its incapacity to distinguish between `speculation’ and `enterprise.’ Hence, it had a tendency to be dominated by speculators, interested not in the long-term yield on assets but only in the short-term appreciation in asset values. Their whims and caprices, causing sharp swings in asset prices, determined the magnitude of productive investment and, therefore, the level of aggregate demand, employment and output in the economy. The real lives of millions of people were determined by the whims of ‘a bunch of speculators’ under the free market system.”—Prabhat Patnaik

I’m going to call you on that one.

OK, I deserve that one.  The credit card companies are careful about that, but friends really push the college students on that.  Probably because those self-same friends are already having credit card problems and want to go out and continue to have fun…

I’ve also heard young people talking in restaurants about the shock of actually having to pay a credit card bill.

And I do remember friends getting credit card offers in the early ‘90s that talked about all the cash they could get in nice large print and kept the fine print on the back, out of the way.

Greg: T’was truly said:  “A fool and his money are soon parted.”  The remedy for foolishness is life experience.  You expect too much from the young, and blaming others for their errors doesn’t help.

If govt control of the economy were the way to go, the Soviet Union would be the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world.

Thanks to Obama, America remains the only country where it is illegal to drill our own oil!