Thursday, March 19, 2009

Yesterday, after dinner, my husband and I made an unusual decision. When a neighbor girl knocked on our door, right in the middle of dinner as the sun was going down and darkness descending, asking if G-Rex could come out to play, we reversed our usual, "No, we're eating dinner," and allowed G-Rex to go out. (How's that for a looooooooong sentence?) Why? Because the neighbor girl explained that they were moving and would probably not be here the following day.

I quizzed G-Rex, when she returned, about this sudden move. Why had we never seen a For Sale sign? Never heard anything about an impending departure? G said the neighbor girl told her that there was no sign because neighbor girl's parents didn't think there was any point in trying to sell the house. As for the sudden move, G didn't know and I'm doubting they had much motivation to broadcast their intentions.

Is ours going to be the only occupied house on our block?

In a similar exsanguinating vein, my lovely friend, Butterfly posted this link to an NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101386052. It's an interesting read.

My next door neighbors have moved out, but left their bird feeder behind. I can currently see the birds jousting for space and fighting over seeds. I wonder how much time they have before the feeder is empty.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Someone Willing to Call it Like it Is

My older brother sent me the link to a blog entry by Jim Kunstler, entitled, Clusterfuck Nation: Forget About Recovery.

While I've been increasingly concerned that full-scale proletariat revolution is coming, he's actually outlined what could be done to prevent it. Too bad it'll never happen, what with the depth of corruption and all.

Must Read

The Baseline Scenario, 2/9/09

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Pound of Flesh

The credit industry is evil in its governance of the world and should be overthrown.

Yes, I truly believe this.

As I watch the news... watching the Wall Street reporters blame The People for the financial crisis while the banks and manufacturers and giants of industry line up for handouts of the money taken from The People, I get ever closer in spirit to the disenfranchised fomenters of rebellion.

And I don't think I'm the only one.

At this point I've seen just about everything and everyone blamed for the panic at hand - except for the credit methodology itself. Our whole economy operates on great gears of credit and I've heard several arguments for this being a good thing.

I don't buy it.

The credit industry is just a global model for legal slavery. And an awful lot of people think they're immune to the consquences of such a model. All the Donnie Trumps and other assholes play the system - in and out of bankruptcy protection... screwing others with impunity while living large. The appearance of success seems to count as stability in our current society.

It is not stable.

Clearly.

And for now, The People are footing the bill.

For years (since about 1991, when I was 16 and first read about The French Revolution on my own) I've been gnawing over my personal hypothesis - that our empire is falling and due for some major reform... and at the rate that's going, it looks like we're following the near-precise roadmap of 18th century France. We're not that different than Rome, either, but France is more recent and easily linked, empathetically.

I hope that the Ponzi schemers (as well as the formerly-wealthy people they ruined) and over-compensated CEOs of failed business models... the FICO spin-doctors and credit card dealers and high-end bourgeoisie in general, read their history and begin to fear the backlash that's coming if they (and the government that has become comfortable with currying the favor of the upper crust) don't peaceably adopt some real reform.

Our nation survived The Great Depression. Can it survive The Great Recession?

Unsurprisingly, upon doing a little research, I found that I'm not the only person thinking this way. A lot of smart people with big degrees think so too.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis sees it.
Cranky curmudgeonly bloggers see it.
Read the history for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

My personal theory is that The People are getting scared and hungry enough that revolt is around the corner.





When the bread and circuses run out, the people with cake should be scared.