My parents were very ambitious. I am not. I feel like I am guarding them, gruff.//It is not only the real estate market- wait for commercial!- and the toxic assets remain unsold. Look at California! The credit card industry. A giant pension fund is in trouble! And what about massive unemployment? It's a merry-go-round of bails.
On May 20, 11:37�am, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > Ahh, rigsy my dear. �Allow me to brighten your perspective a bit with > some recent history. > > Notwithstanding that at the end of WWII, a global economy was in the > making as trade was established around the world, in 1971 Nixon took > the U.S. (and there rest of the world by default) off the gold > standard and let the currency we use base it's value on the > productivity of the nation rather than on the hard and stagnating > standard of the value of an ounce of gold. �Yes, it's true. �Gold > limits a nation's ability to grow wealth. > > So once we cut loose from the gold standard, other nations quickly > followed suit and pretty soon the whole developed and industrialized > world was engaged in production of wealth. �We -- the U.S. -- led the > parade. �It's one of the things we are really great at -- creating > wealth. �In 38 years we took a simple raw economic wilderness and > turned it into the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth. > > Unfortunately we were not morally and ethically ready for such a vast > amount of financial freedom and we ran amok. �As Adam Smith, the man > who first defined the capitalist economic system -- ironically in the > same year that we established our nation -- 1776 -- pointed out, a > free market system has an invisible hand which will eventually bring > aspects that have gotten out of control back to their proper balance > and state of being. > > There have been a few bubbles and crashes since then but this current > one, mainly due to no longer being tethered to gold, is the biggest > yet. �And as always, the bubbles seem to arise first in the real > estate market. �And as Smith's invisible hand dictates, it eventually > bursts. �We are now in that process of bringing our economy back into > proper balance, but in the meantime, compared to any previous time in > history, we are still wealthier than we have ever been. �In the past > few decades the wealth we have created has raised virtually everyone's > boat. �(Not all but most boats.) > > And in the process we have learned a valuable lesson about ourselves > -- there need be controls and regulation to prevent these bubbles from > getting this far out of hand, to put a governor on the greed that ran > rampant for the last couple of decades. � It's fine to seek a profit > but the hardened sharp-edged profit gouging that has taken place in > recent years was a bit beyond the pale. > > So in essence we are just going through an adjustment to bring the > free-market back into proper balance. �This is not to say some won't > be hurt ... there are a lot of people who are being hurt undeservedly > but unfortunately at this point that seems unavoidable. �As a society > we have not yet reached the point of moral and ethical maturity that > those who took more than a fair piece of the pie can stand up, account > for themselves and return some of their over-reaching gains. > > But you have not seen the end of capitalism. �Marx may have been right > that it is a system that cannot sustain itself in the long run, but > we're still a long far way from that point. �So take heart, our > adorable free-market system is alive and healing fairly rapidly. > There will be a few small estate sales at all levels, and some will > take the advantage to pick up some bargains, but on the whole, free- > market capitalism is alive and getting better. �Long live profits. > > On May 19, 12:10 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > The economy will take years to recover and the capitalism of our > > parents is being destroyed. I hope I am dead before the estate sale- > > it would break my heart.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
