This bailout plan is the worst thing we could have done

I was too mesmerized by the use of "kleptocracy" to really take in the rest of the post.

 

Poin, if we really believe that - and I'm not saying I don't...I guess I'm still grasping for hope - then I'm curious. Do you, like I, have offspring? Do we care enough about them to plan on relocating to another country?

Or, with the way America's assets are now a factor in the economies of other nations, are they in as much trouble? The trickle-down effect, in my opinion, will be the penalty for letting greed and incompetence run rampant for decades and there will be nowhere to go, short of a "Survivor" Exile Island.

 

Good thing I nixed "rapine" then, which appeared in the second draft of the post, but got cut in the top edit.

 

My over/under year for the Chinese takeover is . . . ummm . . . 2027.

Once this stuff gathers momentum, things tend to happen very, very quickly.
Wouldn't be surprised if it were sooner.

Thanks for everything, Fredo.

 

This largely doesn't happen if the cronies of the powers in power don't essentially
game the system based on the old, reliable "too big to fail" crutch. So long as
that excuse remains in play, it's open season for all of Cheney's shotgun pals.

 

I'm teaching them Mandarin.

 

20 years ago we were going to be owned by Japan by 2008.

 

Not with Japan essentially being without a standing army, we weren't.

 

I'm sure you were saying that then too.

 

How much of our $10 trillion debt is owned by the Chinese?

The Sauds?

 

Hey, I used kleptocracy in an earlier post! Where's my love?

JG, this is dead-on. What transpired during these eight years will eventually make the Fisk/Gould/Credit Mobilier shenanigans during the Grant Administration and the Teapot Dome escapades of Warren Harding, Harry Daugherty and Co. look like an eighth-grade ASB ballot stuffing.

Once again, you can thank deregulation for all of it -- and Bill Clinton deserves his share of taint for signing the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

Ragu, your eloquent defense of free markets fails to take into account the fact that unfettered, unregulated free markets are a pipe dream that lead to Gilded Age corruption or banana-republic status because humans can't be trusted to act in anything but their own self interest.

We're seeing that born out in vivid, red-tinged color.