Monday, September 15, 2008

You know it was a bad day on Wall Street when

Dr. Doom gets an interview on PBS Newshour, and they don't get to Hurricane Ike until almost forty minutes after the hour.

The Cheerful Malthusian also weighed in, before the markets even opened:

I wish I knew whether this extravaganza of ruin might settle the question as to whether America goes into hyperinflation or implacable deflation, but the net effect is that money is leaving the system in big gobs. And if not money per se, then the idea of money as represented in certificates, contracts, counter-party positions, and gentlemen's agreements. This is the day that America finds itself a much poorer nation. The capital we thought was there, is gone.

A lot of it was actually translated over the years into Hamptons villas, Gulfstream jets, and other playthings that will now go up on Ebay or some equivalent as we turn into Yard Sale Nation in a general liquidation of remaining assets. Of course, the trouble in a situation like this, where absolutely everybody is trying to pawn off assets, is that there are very few buyers on the scene, so the prices of all these things go down down down. Everything is for sale and nobody has any money.

Spotty, doesn't that describe the Depression?

Yes, grasshopper it does, and Kunstler say so, too.

What does Mr. Kunstler say we should do, Spotty?

Here's his advice, which Spot endorses entirely:

So, to begin [the process of accountability], and to clarify the situation, I urge readers of this blog to identify the Republican Party by its new brand-name: the party that wrecked America. At least, then, we can reinstate one cardinal value into the juddering structure of what we claim to believe: that actions have consequences, that you can't just swindle and loot a society and walk away with the swag.

John McCain seems to think that the answer is just more unbridled crony capitalism.

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