"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." (Einstein)

[TahitiNut]

It would be nice if we had people that were half as insightful as Albert working on the economy. Sadly, there's no light at the end of the tunnel and there's no demonstration that WHATEVER the 'problem' is has even been addressed, let alone solved.

If the many tens of billions already sunk into Fannie and Freddie, supposedly a HUGE enough portion of the MBS market to offer some relief, and the precipitous disappearance of EVERY investment bank on Wall Street doesn't offer any leverage against the 'problem' then I fail to see how ANY greater infusion of funds borrowed from our children and grandchildren to enrich people who speculate on obscene derivatives does anything to address the fundamental problems of enriching the arbitrage artists at the cost of the working class.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

1. IT WILL BE SO NICE TO HAVE AN ADULT IN THE WHITEHOUSE

[BrklynLiberal]

2. and its corollary: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting

different results."

[TahitiNut]

3. Yup. The inescapable FACT is that they're NOT trying to solve the problem.

They're in FACT only trying to ameliorate the SYMPTOMS of the problem. The system itself is corrupted beyond repair, imho. We've seen Frankensteins's monster arise and run amok in a system that's become ALL MARKET and NO PRODUCERS. Let me repeat that. The 'system' is cancer-ridden and the 'market' has become a metastacized array of tumors that have pushed out everything other than OWNERS and TRADERS ... and there's no room left for workers and producers.

We have a system where we TRADE 'ownership' (of equities or commodities or derivatives) with every TRADE enriching a TRADER and every OWNER demanding MORE blood from the underlying producer of value. Labor gets fucked. Natural resources become small wagons on which obese speculators and fat traders ride. The public gets fucked.

All MARKET and NO PRODUCTION ... we enrich traders and owners and impoverish the workers.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I think you have pinned it down perfectly.

Nothing is getting actually PRODUCED here. All there is, is a trading back and forth of various forms of stocks or securities etc...with each new seller making money, and not caring what the hell happens after that.

How is that different from a pyramid scheme?

[Canuckistanian]

6. To be more precise, nothing is getting FIXED

The same system can still cause another meltdown.

I don't see any new regulation proposed here or laws to punish financial misdeeds.

NOR do I see any help for the ones that will bear the greatest burden - the failed homeowners.

[TahitiNut]

8. That 'system' can cause $700 billion to disappear faster than David Copperfield can say "Presto!"

That 'system' puts a thousand piranhas on the corpse of a water buffalo to shame.

[TahitiNut]

7. From the people who brought you the $659 ashtray, $435 hammer, and $640 toilet seat.

Some impoverished laborer in Bangladesh produces an item for which he's paid $1.25 (and his EMPLOYER is paid $10.00) and that item is bundled, shipped, sold, bought, sold, bought, shipped, sold, bought, and peddled to a crony contractor to some insider at the Pentagon looking for a job after retiring from the military. Every keyboard warrior along the way takes MORE than the guy who did the work. The guy doing the work can only do it if he agrees to be "employed" ... and his tools are 'owned' by his boss, having been shipped over there from some small town in Tennessee where they fired the guys that used to do it.

[KoKo]

4. I think we should wait before we do any "Bail Out." ....I know that's not popular, here...

But, Enough is Enough doing this FEAR FACTOR, THING. I'm sick of "Mushroom Clouds," "Terra under Americans Beds" running our policy. If our Dems are too fearful they keep getting "suckered in" then it says they don't read their mail and all the documents sent to them from "learned folks" who are "Outside the DC BUBBLE!"

I'm sickened by this rush to BAILOUT! :-(

[Two Americas]

12. it is popular here, I believe

As with so many issues here, the tail wags the dog. A relative handful of people are able to dominate the discussion, bamboozling people with fear campaigns and dense impenetrable "explanations."

We are being told that anyone questioning this mad rush to do something, to roll over for a massive give away to the same crooks who caused the problem, must want a depression, or must be advocating a "violent revolution" or are ignorant or naive or have a hidden and irresponsible or dangerous agenda. These are the same tactics used here on every issue, so that less than 10% of the membership can dominate the other 90% and control and steer the discussion.

[Truth2Tell]

17. Bingo!

But the Very Serious Adults are having a lot of trouble selling this turd, polish as they might.

[Two Americas]

19. they are putting on a clinic

Every misleading and manipulative rhetorical tactic is being put to use.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. The capitalists are trying to sell us the rope to hang ourselves with. K&R

Thanks to their machinations, coupled with the extraordinary incompetence of the "regulators", they've succeeded in bankrupting the country. Now, they want us to further bankrupt it to enrich themselves.

They have squandered the wealth and the youth of the nation in a long series of unnecessary wars and adventures aimed at preserving a corrupt system that serves the most rapacious and venal of the citizenry.

They are asking us, again, to participate in the destruction they have brought about.

[TahitiNut]

10. The banks in the Caymans must be bulging.

It'd be marvelous to have the flow of wealth exposed ... but it'll never happen. The CEO salaries have to be chickenfeed compared to the profiteers' takes.

[northamericancitizen]

11. Good post. K & R

[KoKo]

13. True....I wish Congress would wait until after Recess/Election to re-visit this.

Being rushed into this is to reminiscent of all the other Bush policies we have been rushed to in the past where once the legislation was passed...we came to rue the day it was signed.

I just don't understand why our Dems took the bait once again. After all this time...it seems they don't listen or read or even understand what has been going on. That's hard to deal with given how much many folks all over America have tried to inform them...marched in the streets, wrote, faxed, phoned and sent info to them. It's just hard to understand. :shrug:

[KoKo]

14. This post on DU about Dodd complaining he was "Blidsided" by Repugs today at meeting

sort of begs question...why? Why would Dems claim to still be "Blidsided by Repugs" after all these years? What's with this "victim thing?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3511798

[glitch]

15. Good question. Quite a few of us aren't buying it anymore. nt

[TahitiNut]

16. I have to believe there's far more behind this than we've seen.

What are the Saudis doing? Is there a gamble that an economic collapse will ultimately result in a more fascist form of government? Something really stinks.

[OakCliffDem]

18. Kick