You may have noticed I haven't posted last week or this. You see, I've moved and I am at the mercy of the worst big company since Krupp provided armor and cannon for the Nazis - Verizon. When they get around to getting me that filter (and that is a huge "if") my problem "may" be solved.
I actually wrote 7 pages for this blog on the election and the crisis only to discover that for the 50th time that day my internet didn't connect and I just do not have the patience to re-write it, not with the patience I've had to expend on computer companies this week. You really don't want to know. It's been rough and if I had a Verizon, Dell or Norton person here in front of me, I would not be myself.
Anyway, it's probably a good thing as it would just piss you off. But, since I won't re-write it, here's my instant summary of it stripped of anything that might pass as insight in another universe.
All politicians lie.
McCain and Obama are politicians.
Thus, McCain and Obama lie (constantly)
All presidential campaigns are based almost exclusively on lies except for when it is just plain exaggeration. Sometimes stupidity, but mostly lies.
Partisans are crazy.
Most people I know are partisans.
Thus, most people are crazy.
If you are a partisan, you are crazy too.
You can favor one side over the other without being partisan, angry or buying into the lying and exaggerations on your side.
I favor McCain, but not for policy reasons. These are the three main reasons: Experience (for what it is worth, and it must mean something); More moderate than Obama; Won't be the same party as congress (key point); will be perceived as more dangerous to Iran, Russia, etc.
On the other hand, he has run a horrible campaign. On yet a third hand, the majority of the media that counts (meaning not petty blogs like my own) has been in Obama's corner since he first laced on the gloves. Ask Hillary. Ask (pre-revelation) Joe Biden.
Here's my summary of my now deceased essay on finance.
The experts are idiots. They know no more than we do.
Our money system is make believe. Of course crazy things are going to happen. We will just make believe something else.
If it doesn't make any sense to you then it probably doesn't make any sense. They don't know more than you do. They understand our system is make believe and have better imaginations than you.
As in politics, we get what we deserve. We invest without paying attention and leave it to the experts. Almost like buying magic beans from someone because they have a tall weed in their front yard.
Both parties want to mostly exclude Americans who took loans they knew they could not pay. Shame on them. I'm sure there is real predatory lending, but much of what is called predatory lending is not.
It was necessary to have congress act quickly to handle credit crisis. We are a credit society.
But, they should have put out the fire and come up with a solution that doesn't involve government becoming a major player in the market. That's why we had Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the first place. There are many good suggestions out there and they don't fit in my summary.
If we are going to continue with a capitalist system you have to have losers. The government should not get involved as they are here without country threatening consequences if they don't. A worldwide depression isn't enough.
It is going to get worse, much worse before it gets better. If you haven't read up on credit default swaps yet, Google and read the Wikipedia article (but, in short, it is sort of an insurance policy by another name and without any money backing it up). That Market may blow up too. No one even understands it or knows how much is out there. But, it is many, many TRILLIONS (if the capital letters did not do the trick -- that is Trillions, not Billions. If not now, soon.
And then, everything will right itself after a lot of pain. And then, we will screw it up again just like always.
The End.
Hopefully, I'll be back next week end with computer power, the internet, and the type of article that made me unknown throughout the country. I'd like to thank the Buchanan Library for use of their computer and the Academy for their support.
Wow, even my Reader's Digest version of my blog is too long.
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About Me
- David
- I started this blog in September, 2006. Mostly, it is where I can talk about things that interest me, which I otherwise don't get to do all that much, about some remarkable people who should not be forgotten, philosophy and theories (like Don Foster's on who wrote A Visit From St. Nicholas and my own on whether Santa is mostly derived from a Norse god) and analysis of issues that concern me. Often it is about books. I try to quote accurately and to say when I am paraphrasing (more and more). Sometimes I blow the first name of even very famous people, often entertainers. I'm much better at history, but once in a while I see I have written something I later learned was not true. Sometimes I fix them, sometimes not. My worst mistake was writing that Beethoven went blind, when he actually went deaf. Feel free to point out an error. I either leave in the mistake, or, if I clean it up, the comment pointing it out. From time to time I do clean up grammar in old posts as, over time I have become more conventional in my grammar, and I very often write these when I am falling asleep and just make dumb mistakes. It be nice to have an editor, but . . . .
Wow, one of your best blogs ever! Your computer should go down more often. Straightforward, right to the point.... this is what is known as editing. You should hang onto to this new tool, it works for you.
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