Brainwashing Propaganda, or Morality Lesson?

[kandrathe]

Mirth at your outrageous statement about Georgie being unpampered. I was pretty sure Jester would answer it better than I, and I was right. But I couldn't let it pass without laughing.

Ah, ok. Good for Jester. He was correct in that Bush enjoyed a brief sunshine period until about a month after 9/11, when the tech bubble burst, and then the blame game started.

Oh it was so so long ago was it? The deregulation of the stock market and of ownership rules done in 1998 didn't have anything to do with the bad practices that followed, eh? The credit crunch happened all by itself then. The greed of "we could be making even more money if we didn't have these old post-1929 rules to follow" had nothing to do with anything, I'm sure.

History is best when you invent it yourself. The unregulated market artifact that was the genesis of the current crisis was the Credit Default Swap. <blockquote>"Forms of Credit Default Swaps had been in existence from at least the early 1990s, but the modern Credit Default Swaps were invented in 1997 by a team working for JPMorgan Chase. They were designed to shift the risk of default to a third party, and were therefore less punitive in terms of regulatory capital. The first CDS involved JPMorgan selling the credit risk of Exxon to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Credit Default Swaps became largely exempt from regulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which was also responsible for the Enron loophole."</blockquote>I recall that Bill Clinton was the President during the passage of that legislation that resulted in the Enron debacle, and now this one. But, to be fair, it was a Republican controlled congress and a bi-partisan cluster flock.

There may be some truth to trickle-down, but the GOP goes too far.

I never liked the term anyway, it always makes me consider where my water supply is coming from, and in that case I don't want to be trickled upon by the wealthy. I like my model better, where it is the people who get to trickle on the government. Let them be on the bottom, serving us. We'll pay them when they start doing a good job. I like that idea, Congress will only get paid when their job approval rating is above 50% (currently at 29%).

...and we're not blaming who screwed up? just "the government"?

100 Senators + 435 Representatives + their aides produce piles of crap that the President should more often than not veto.

And that's "pro-business", ugh.

I just don't think you can force businesses to be nice, or be fair. The unscrupulous will find ways around it, or outright break the laws (e.g. sweat shops in LA), and the law abiding businesses who have to compete for good labor are crushed under the yoke of regulations. I think there is a reasonable middle ground. Product awareness through the internet is growing, and will be even more critical in the future as RFID and mobile computing allow shoppers instant assessments of their buying choices. I might not be so quick to grab that Nestles Quick if I knew it was made by African children kept as slaves.

... and derivatives were allowed by who, and when??

See above. Short Answer: The rulers (power brokers on Wall Street and their kept politicians).

So let's start making things! Like fuel-efficient cars, wind turbines, solar cells, etc.

I'm not opposed as long as the econometrics show it to be net productive. I'm tired of novelty items being sold as ecologically friendly. Naw, mostly they are just another waste of resources marketed to people who want to feel green.

For your son --:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: