applegrove
applegrove's JournalThe OWS movement freed people from the fear and hatred the GOP had stirred up inside centrists.
I think people liked to get their multiple realities back. Multiple realities is what the 99% is. People stopped worrying about the deficit around the same time. The economy improved. I don't know who is hiring, but it seems there is less fear about the economy lately. Like once people got free of the GOP fear machine, the economy immediately improved. I knew the fear the gop instilled in people of the base or the centre was about controlling them and getting them to hate the left. I didn't know fear could be a self fulfilling prophecy, stalling the economy so Obama could not get re-elected.
The corporations like to make money off their customers in more ways these days.
The Economist magazine had an article that talked about how in 1990 MBA schools started to teach business people to attack their customers, government, stockholders, not just their competitors.
Big banks certainly did that with sub prime mortgages. They took the fact that banks changed the 'rules' on what a 'good' mortgage was, as a way to fool people into getting loans. Then they packaged those horrid loans and sold them to other unsuspecting customers as derivatives. Their customers assumed that these were like old time bank loans where banks were discriminating in who they loaned to. That change in assumption was how so many bankers got bonuses on massive amounts of these transactions. With corporations 'competing' with customers based on 'new assumptions' the customers don't know about, it is a confidence game
Not only that, but the main assumption in all economic models is the 'given perfect information' demand and supply will find some ideal equilibrium. If information is purposely exploited, what is to stop corporations from misinforming or creating a misinforming industry (advertisements, politics, fox news). Nothing! The bankers misinformed Americans when, as a group, they refused to apologize in front of congress. That was play acting & propaganda.
Market failure is certainly what happened with the subprime mortagage crisis. It screams out for regulations, not just on financial instruments, but also on the role information and assumptions play in markets. Corporations are desperate for new areas of growth now that the Western economies are mature. Let's not let these new markets be totally based on disinformation.
There was an information vacuum in regards to sub-prime mortgages. Corporations
made millions based on the fact they knew the mortgages were crap and the people signing up for them or buying the packaged mortgages didn't know how bad it was. Used to be that you assumed your bank would be sure about whether you were a good candidate for a mortgage. That was the assumption many people out there were still working under. Bankers made millions in bonuses based on all the loan transactions they were able to make, the derivative transactions they were able to make, all based on a lack of good information their customers had.
That seems to be a new business meme: to make money off of people less informed than they are. The basic assumption under all economic models of markets is that given perfect information, demand and supply will find some healthy equilibrium. If the assumptions in the economic models is no longer correct, what does that mean for markets everywhere?
Repost because it was in the wrong forum: The GOP meme of the day is that Democrats are trying
to 'divide' people. What a projection from a group that has sliced and diced the electorate with wedge issues for 30 years. I hope Democrats have a good comeback to that. Just when people are begining to feel connected to their realities again, because of OWS and the 99%, just when they are thinking about their economic self interest again, the GOP attacks that feeling with the idea that the opposite is true. As per ususal with the GOP, up is down, black is white, coming together under the 99% is dividing the country.
Crosspost with Lounge: Skinner can we start a "good ideas" group?
Great minds think alike: what ideas have you had only to see somebody else come up with said idea and implement them? When they built the skydome in Toronto I thought it was really cool that the roof would open and that you could fit any kind of sports activity there including a rink. Maybe 8 years ago, I suggested to my brother-in-law that they should put the rink in the skydome and open the roof and play hockey under the stars... the same way kids learn to love to play hockey (local outdoor rinks are everywhere in Canada). They could tell the fans to bundle up and serve them hot chocolate. Now they have these classic hockey games outside in lots of cities every winter in open air stadiums.
My dad asked me to order cookies for the grandkids of a friend of his. They called my dad "cookie monster" and he wanted something special for them. I went to a caterers in August and asked if they would do some gingerbread men only dress them in beachwear. They did a fantastic job. Now you see decorated, cut out cookies everywhere in every city, in every season.
In both instances I felt particularly inspired when the idea entered my brain. When things like this happen I think there should be a website where you can go and 'give away' your good ideas. A place where people could go to get inspired. Where their minds could be expanded for a few minutes. We already see people coming up with the same great political ideas at the same time in the blogosphere, not just the DU. Why not have a group on the DU dedicated to good ideas of all kinds that could then be reccommended to rank them.
The 1%/GOP has managed to diminish economists with their bullshit. They want to diminish all
public experts and leave all good knowledge only in the hands of the corporations (who will be the only ones who can afford to pay for it). This is part of us heading back into the dark ages where only corporations will have a monopoly on information this time - instead of religion. Why do they hate experts so much? Because they inform people and regulate corporations. All things that take profits, and therefore big bonuses, out of the hands of ceos. They have been pushing bullshit economics for so long, people deregulated financial markets and as a result we have chronic unemployment. And now people don't trust the other economists..the ones who still teach what worked in the past (Keynesians). Just like the gop/1% made government not function so that people would no longer believe in it. It is working.
He used the term venture capitalism to describe himself. Democrats are not against
venture capitalism..that is when a bank forms a partnership with somebody with a good idea and a small business, and together they turn it into a big business and create lots & lots of jobs. Liberals love that kind of business. It is a bait and switch. Apparently Romeny is good at bait and switching as well as lying. Don't let him call himself a venture capitalist. Don't let him claim Democrats are against venture capitalism. That is not the kind of capitalism he practiced when he worked for Bain.
I've figured out why Occupy rocks! Psychopaths will force one single reality on all the people.
Usually there are multiple realities amongst various people, even within groups. Hell their are multiple realities between any two people. As it should be. The GOP has been forcing its narrative on americans (fewer taxes, no abortion, no regulation, etc). On the left, there has been dueling narratives forced on people. By telling folk they have a voice with OCCUPY, people are reclaiming their realities. And they feel less forced for saying what is truly in their hearts & minds, and acting on that. That is all the bubbling up that is going on with the huge meetings and locally based truths. That is why people feel suddenly free.
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