Where does it stop

[shorelinemc]

would the 6 legged greature be a griffin?

[mx250]

Here's that explanation as a diagram for those who didn't follow it .

Well, close to it. I think the man in the barrel is specifically the US taxpayer but it's all of us indirectly  . Its the 'little man's' job and/or business that goes to the wall; it is 'the 'little man's' family that get put out on the street; it is the 'little man's' children that go hungry.

It might be a cartoon but I believe the CEO of Liebmans walked away with $300 million for his last year's salary - bloody obsene . I would have my doubts about the morality or the economics of this in a good year, but immediately before bankruptcy? And he wasn't alone .

Rudd's making noises about keeping this in check but I can't see how.

[VMX247]

FORREST GUMP thinks
Mortgage Backed Securities are like boxes of chocolates.
Criminals on Wall Street stole a few chocolates from the boxes and replaced them with turds.
Their criminal buddies at Standard & Poor rated these boxes AAA Investment Grade chocolates.
These boxes were then sold all over the world to investors.
Eventually somebody bites into a turd and discovers the crime.
Suddenly nobody trusts American chocolates anymore worldwide.
Hank Paulson now wants the American taxpayers to buy up and hold all these boxes of turd-infested chocolates for $700 billion dollars until the market for turds returns to normal.
Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates, are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted.
Mama always said: "Sniff the chocolates first, Forrest".

[mx250]

Meanwhile, Hank's buddies, the Wall Street criminals who stole all the good chocolates, are not being investigated, arrested, or indicted.

Pretty accurate from what I understand.

"Stop them, there getting away ."

It might be a cartoon but its pretty accurate . We the plebs are too busy pumping the hand cart to survive, the bad boys have the luxury of their payouts to survive the crap they have caused and to frustrated the pursuers with legal stratagems.

Did I mention neither sheriffs, Dems or Republicans, are very interested to give chase either.

[Wombat]

would the 6 legged greature be a griffin?

I think Griffins have wings...dunno .
Who knew Googling 'six legged black beast blowing flames at it's arse' would bring up a nice photo of Gaerne boots and dirty bricks? 
I was expecting something random... Ya gotta love the internet.

Hey thanks for all these analogies on the financial crisis.
Painting a picture makes it all easier to understand.

[Freakshow]

Stick explaination best - just wish i could host the Power point somewhere.

taDARRRR

Only explaination youll ever need, its a Power point so when it loads up click image to go to next slide.

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1

[Nathan S]

I read this on a US-based Volvo forum (of all places). Thought it was worth sharing:

So we all hear about the financial crisis and the economic meltdown, heard plenty (too much?) about it I am sure!

Anyway I heard someone speak today (joseph stiglitz) who actually thinks about it the same way I do which is that fundamentally the system is broken.(especially with Publicly traded companies)

Essentially the root problem is big corporations looking to their stock value as a measure of the company's value.

Company value used to be measured by tangibles; capital, market share, product quality, and consumer's opinions of the quality and price of their product. All of the above would be used to estimate value, this promoted quality lasting products, led to innovation, and generally healthy companies.

However in the last 20 years due to lax regulations on the financial market coupled with lack of transparency in stock options and their value, the executives of Companies have started to strive towards only attempting to gain their stock value rather than focusing on their actual products.(whether these be a good or service)

And to add insult to injury these executives often are left with golden parachutes (stock options generally) when they leave the company after having failed.

We have probably all seen this in corporate America whatever you do and wherever you have worked.

The reason that this has put such a strain on the economy is many faceted and I will try to touch on some of the facets (but bear with me I am not that good at remembering and it will probably be added to through edits.) My favorite fact to point out is the fact that:

No dollars are ever "produced" on the stock market, merely exchanged. This may be a hard concept for many to comprehend and I am not good at teaching economics, but take my word for it every dollar there has already been taxed ONCE at least.
(attempt at example: I buy a pair of shoes, joe the shoe man made them with $25 worth of materials, I bought them for $50, so Joe just produced $25.
However if I buy $50 worth of stocks from joe who bought them for $25, joe has gained $50 but he hasn't produced anything as the money he gained just came from someone else's losses.)

So when corporate execs are given shares as stock options they are essentially diluting the value of all of the REAL investors in the company, and when they cash them out they aren't producing anything but rather taking capital out of the company.

So corporate execs stand to gain mightily by driving the price of their stock up (through any methods necessary) this has led to the demise of many corporations that could be producing and profiting today were it not for the actions of their execs lured by the value of stocks..

Essentially what has happened is that deregulation has gone to the point where companies that should be producing actual products to sell for profit are supplementing their normal sales by becoming financial companies through taking risks in investment.

Companies have had such over-inflated stock values through meddling by their execs that their stock value greatly exceeded their actual company value in the old sense. Now that the market has started to right itself there is mass hysteria that the sky is falling and we are going into a great depression Part Duex so what happens but the government pumps Billions into the markets. Well what did we learn above?? No Money is ever produced on the markets, so the government is now essentially giving an economic stimulus package to the rich. (cause they stand to lose the most by the markets dropping back to reality)

Well this is getting rather long winded but the question is what can we do to FIX our capitalist society? I mean we all like it right? I do, but it's totally broken as is evident by the Current conditions.

One way to fix the economy is to tax the hell out of revenue gained through trading of stocks to a point where investors act as investors rather than gamblers. They would have to leave their stock in one place unless they wanted to take the tax hit. (maybe a smaller hit if money is rolled right into another stock, but maybe not)

But I think the real fix has to start at the top and start with CASH bonuses and CASH incentives for Corporate officers, this lessens their short term interest in the stock value and frees them up to strive for long term success.

This above I think would be the only way to stop our current Capitalist society from spiraling down the tube.

Just my two cents about how the country needs to start to change!

[VMX247]

Thanks Nathan S that was interesting reading,just watched on the news US spends 100 million a day in Afghanistan on the war and 7 million on relef.
bloody madness

[Wombat]

Thanks Nathan S that was interesting reading,just watched on the news US spends 100 million a day in Afghanistan on the war and 7 million on relef.
bloody madness

100 million per day?? Are you sure? Is that right??! That seems insanely high and it's hard to fully comprehend that sort of figure.
Heard this quote some time ago:

"A Billion here, a billion there; pretty soon it adds up to some real money".

[YSS]

It is not really , when you can just print money as required ( that is what america does)
If you and I would continue to write uncovered cheques , what would happen then ? Same thing , just on alot bigger scale. Back to original question : Where does it stop ?

[eno]

"It aint over till the fat lady sings"

[VMX247]

"A Billion here, a billion there; pretty soon it adds up to some real money".
100 mill a day.
That was on the news ,so believe it or not.It does add up medical bills,housing/families back home/weapons/transport air sea land,food/water/clothing etc
They are also saying that America is like us and has its own income so there for make the weapons to on sell to the war zones of the world.
still bloody madness
ps and hopefully it stops about pre90   

[oldfart]

Just got me super fund Satement today   FARK    - 7.47 %    I'm off to have a cuppa and study where it's all gone wrong .

[VMX247]

Oldfart    if you are very close to retirement then worry    ,but if ya have a few years to go relax.
have a great weekend

[Rosco400]

Just got me super fund Satement today   FARK    - 7.47 %    I'm off to have a cuppa and study where it's all gone wrong .

What about the +20% the last 2-3 years,funny how we forget about those, market corrections are a good thing, the world is not coming to an end, buy up now and you will be laffin (if you are game )