Yall left Atlanta just in time

[softball]

The U.S. conversion to socialism is inevitable at this point. I think this winds up being the first big step in that direction. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. The government hasn't shown me one thing they can run efficiently

They haven't been given a chance. The free market has never worked and that is why it gets meddled with. Pure socialism never works and that is why it doesn't exist. I have lived in a fucked up Socialist country (USSR) and I have lived in fucked up capitalist economies (Canada and the UK). Both of which took care of themselves with a certain amount of socialism to rein in the greedy bastard capitalists. Greed is not necessarily good. It does not provide clean water, good health care or safe transportation. This has been proven recently in England.
The United States has never given any kind of codified socialism a chance. An equitable distribution of the wealth leads to a safer, healthier environment. When too much of the wealth is horded by too few, crime runs rampant. It ultimately leads to revolution. That is what happened in Russia in 1917. For those who say it can't happen here and now, think again. There is nothing new under the sun and history does and will repeat itself.
If you really believe in the unfettered free market, you only have to look at the porn business since the internet and see the scum that slither between the legal cracks. This JMM thing is just one incident in a litany of "free trader" incidents.

Fuck all the excuses about sub prime crap. If these "capitalists" had rang alarm bells months ago, this could have been avoided. But they were scumbags in guccis and it all came down in one week. What happened to "one if by land, two if by sea".

America has lost the conscience it once had that made it a great among nations. Now it has become a greedy bully that got its shins kicked since Iraq and is crying crocodile tears and begging the world to understand.

Sad state of affairs.

[miz_wright]

Originally Posted by rhetorical

Fuck all the excuses about sub prime crap. If these "capitalists" had rang alarm bells months ago, this could have been avoided. But they were scumbags in guccis and it all came down in one week. What happened to "one if by land, two if by sea".
{snip}
Sad state of affairs.

I agree it is a sad state of affairs, but the "sub-prime crap," as you so eloquently word it, was actually the warning bell for the US economic melt-down and emblematic of the greater concern: wild speculation and hedging against commodities and real property. It's not much different, really, than the wild margining against (uh, oh - here's the part where it gets ugly) web properties in the late 90s - only this time, it was actual goods instead of cyberspace that people gambled with, so the meltdown has a much more immediate fallout against the general populace and not just Silicon Valley.

The current situation stems almost directly from mortgages that were based on non-existent down payments and structuring loans in ways that had nothing other than over-priced property to back them - and the assumption (endemic in boom economies) that the property values underlying those papers would continue to rise. As the market contracted - which was fairly apparent would happen after the meteoric rise in property values stateside - those values dropped - which also should've been readily apparent to those whose job it is to make markets in such things - leaving the securities backed with nothing more than a hope and a dream.

Because those mortgages had been repackaged and sold as a "can't lose" proposition by those who should've known better, and bought up by others that should've been able to look at the underlying math - well, hello, stupidity and greedy investors.