I like that. :D

Laura Meckler

The McCain campaign plans to begin airing a new ad on national cable TV starting Thursday, aides said tonight. The spot, which attacks Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the economy, may be the earliest attack ad ever aired …

http://theclintonfiles.net/

First finish the thought: Economic cycles are simply a product of the human emotions of fear and greed. yes the underlying economic conditions cause the cycles but it is the human emotion of fear that make a small contraction into a large depression and the emotion of greed turns a boom into a bubble

You see, our industrial revolution wasn’t inspired by greed, but the desire to create, to build.

Yeah Morgan, Standard oil, Biltmore no greed there. Nope. They were after the betterment of civilization. ever hear of the gilded age? the entire industrial revolution was based on greed.

The housing boom of the 1950’s didn’t come from greed, the the necessity to provide jobs to a growing urban economy

and what drove the people to move to the cities? the greed for a better life. they could have stayed on the farm. But they wanted better.

None of these are inspired by greed or fear, they are natural cycles of an economy.

and what drives these natural cycles? that’s right fear and greed. Are human wants greed? depends what the want is and who is in relation to that want. A human want of a CEO might seem incredibly greedy to a worker on the line. whereas that washing machine might seem gredy to the African child that has no food. It is a matter of degree.

If you do not understand that fear and greed are the drives of all economic cycles it is you who must go back to school. The stock market is a microcosim of that fear and greed on display on a daily basis. what is the present credit crunch but a big fear revival of the money lenders. what has caused the housing bubble but the greed for a bigger house or the fear of not keeping up with the neighbors? Why do you invest but not for the fear of being without or the greed of doing better? what is the difference between a recession and a depresion but a magnitude difference in fear and hopelesness? why do you think we call it a DEPRESSION? that is a human condition not an economic one. What is the difference between boom times and a bubble but the unrestrained emotion of greed?

that scotsman you quote was in the vangaurd of a nation that wanted to rule the world. that was not greedy? what is absolute power but run away greed of power? sure you have other reasons for making things, building a better life but the emotions of fear and greed amplify those cycles makes them bigger, longer and higher

Economic cycles are simply a product of the human emotions of fear and greed.
unseen on April 3, 2008 at 11:31 AM

I don’t think that is out of any text book. Simply a product of fear and greed? I hope you have not graduated yet, I don’t think your education is finished. Spoken like a true socialist.
Let me give you an example of a cycle not driven by fear and greed…
Silicon valley, and all that the computer age are given us…
You see, our industrial revolution wasn’t inspired by greed, but the desire to create, to build.
The housing boom of the 1950’s didn’t come from greed, the the necessity to provide jobs to a growing urban economy. Unless you feel owning your own washer and dryer and TV is greed (then you move into Marxism).
The baby boomer’s, which have driven the economy for 60 years, are nearing retirement at a rate of biblical proportions. We hold 70% of the wealth of the nation, as we retire, our production and drive goes with us.
Our shifting economy from a manufacturing base to a service base, has to be adjusted.
And many for issues, far from being “simple”.
None of these are inspired by greed or fear, they are natural cycles of an economy.
The boomers are scaling back, we are changing the landscape as we have always. That is why medical care is such an issue.
The U.S. economy has followed the birth of the boomers. When we needed schools, we built schools, when we needed golf courses, we built golf courses, you are equating wants and desires to greed (back to the “ism’s”), when a couple hundred years ago a Scotsman wrote (as a basis of a free economy) “human wants are insatiable). That’s is what drives success, and as those “wants” change, so does the economy. (please don’t make a fool of yourself and equate wants with greed, that would be too desperate)
Now, who wrote that great sentence (and not Aristotle, although he said something similiar)? And please read more about him.

(3 A.M)
Hill: (yawns) “Okay, Bill what are you in for this time.”
Bill: “Ah, um, soliciting a prostitute and public indecency.”
Hill: “Ya know Bill, that’s third time this week.”
Bill: “Ahm sorry Hill, ah truly am but Eliot’s gone and he can’t help me on this anymore.”
Hill: ” Ya know Bill, ya know ya can’t expect others to keep it zipped for ya.”
Bill: “Ah know Hill, it won’t happen again for at least two weeks, ah promise.”
Hill: “Well, ya know Bill what happens when you promise things.”
Bill: “Ah know Hill, ah know, but ah mean it ah really do.”
Hill: “Well maybe so Bill, I’ll get Attorney General Janet Reno to run interference just like old times. She can FIX it for us ya know she can. And what’s Pellicano’s number. Bill Richardson and Lieberman are causing trouble again.”
Bill: “Check with Carville and Ah love ya Hill, ya know I truly do.”
Hill: “Just keep it zipped Bill.”
Bill: “Ah’ll trah, Hill. Huh, huh. Thanks.”
(cut to voice over)
“Hillary and Bill. A national tradition of well, ah, you know.”

right2bright on April 3, 2008 at 11:06 AM

Amen. Liberals don’t understand economics, period.
If they start bailing people out for not paying their mortgages, then I guess I won’t pay my mortgage anymore. What’s the point? Whether my money pays via taxes for my mortgage or my money pays via hard work for my mortgage? Granted, hard work requires character, ethics and preparation, but if my money is going toward bailing people out anyway… /sarcasm off Btw: I’m part of that rare breed who actually lives within her means.

oil is up 10 times – (over 8 years)http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/10/does_dollar_wea_1.html
gold is up 300% – (over a decade)http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plx
dollar down about 10% – (over 2 years)
corn as doubled. – (see previous comment about mandatory ethanol requirements)
unseen on April 3, 2008 at 11:37 AM

added relevant time sequence, etc. to your post to help explain

yes,,the best course would to make it illegal to do the thing in the fist place.

oil is up 10 times
gold is up 300%
dollar down about 10%
corn as doubled.

All of the move is not dollar related.

The historic home price decline only exists in a few areas, where the bubble needed to burst

Nationwide 17 out of 18 cities tracked had price declines last month. while I agree the bubble needs to deflate, home are different than stocks, or bonds, or oil etc. homes wealth is the underlying bedrock of our economy.

Economic cycles are simply a product of the human emotions of fear and greed. yes the underlying economic conditions cause the cycles but it is the human emotion of fear that make a small contraction into a large depression and the emotion ogf greed turns a boom into a bubble. While I agree you can not wipe out these emotions you can curtail them. Like a herd of cattle. there will be stampeds but rather you push them towards the cliff or a walled in canyon is the role of the government. the Bear streans bailout was a walled canyon. the markets calmed down when the gunshots were removed. The quote by FDR rings true “nothing to fear but fear itself” fear of loss causes banks to stop lending, fear of job loss causes consumers to quit spending, fear of home decline causes people not to buy. you can soothe fear and you can limit greed by the policies you make and the statements you make. high credit debt can go on forever as long as people believe they will be paid back, as long as people believe that they will be able to pay the loans back.

“It is OK to be irresponsible, if you can get enough dumbasses to be as (or more) irresponsible at the same time. As soon as you can create a big enough problem, the government will spend someone else’s money to make it not your problem any more.”

…this isn’t about bailing out a few homeowners. this isn’t about votes or election year media coverage. It’s about our economy, our credit, our finacial systems.

unseen on April 3, 2008 at 10:44 AM

And how many times do you have to be told, the government can’t control the economy. You can’t stop cycles. When you try to control economic cycles, you are just putting a lid on it, and it builds up steam so the cycle becomes more volatile.
Go back to the Carter years, he tried all kinds of snake oil solutions…and the market became for erratic, loans were at 18%, cars lined up for gas because he “capped” the price. Let the free market move, it will balance out. Some will get hurt, some will get wealthy.
The government, no person or group, can control this nations economy…you have no concept on how large this economy is. You “help” one sector, and you harm another. Let the cycle takes it course, and move on. There are no guarantees in life on whether you make money or lose money when you invest.

It makes me wonder if this is how Hillary thinks things are done. Was Bill always getting calls at 3:00 a.m. and rolling over to tell Hillary, “Sorry, gotta go! There’s a crisis requiring my immediate attention. Its a… a… housing crisis! Yeah, that’s it, a housing crisis!”

How many more historic events do you need to happen to understand that we face an unprecendented financial/economic crisis in this country. Maybe the historic rise of oil/gold? the historic fall of the dollar? the historic rise of grains and food stuffs? Not getting it yet? How about the historic rate of home price decline? No? still not seeing the picture? still seeing hystria around every bush? the only thing that has been keeping this economy up is low unemployment and consumer spending.
unseen on April 3, 2008 at 10:44 AM

I would be the first to say that Americans have too much debt and don’t save enough, etc. but I think you are indeed buying into the hysteria. Gold and to a certain extent oil are up ONLY because the dollar is down – think about it – a commodity priced in dollars has to go up when the dollar goes down. Foodstuffs are up because of foolish government intervention – think mandatory ethanol requirements. The historic home price decline only exists in a few areas, where the bubble needed to burst. Home prices in some places more than doubled in less than a decade – is that growth or feverish speculation? The consumer confidence numbers reveal an important story….people say that they are doing fine, but everyone else is in serious trouble, which proves that this is a media/politics driven self-fulfilling prophecy. Once again, I shake my head at the level of debt and lack of savings by Americans, but this whole economic collapse thesis is being blown all out of proportion.

1) bear Streans was saved from bankrupcty by the FED, it was a shotgun marriage. Call it what you want. the fact of the matter is an 85 year old firm one of the biggest financial firms in the World was wiped out. but you know what that happens all the time right? No really it doesn’t. It was a HISTORIC event. Bear Streans was the lead company on the home loan problem. the carney in the coal mine so to speak. the Fed went further, they opened the discount window to investment banks so none of the others would fail. Again a historic event.

2) the stimulus package only came about AFTER the FED chairmen went to capital hill and met privately with the Congressional leaders. again it being an election year and a large majoirity of the voters being against a bailout, the proper thing would have been to fight it. they didn’t. Not only didn’t they fight it, you had both sides come together and sit around the campfire. No debate, very few amendments, etc. Record time…another historic event. that’s three historic events in a very small time. Add into the mix the historic interest rate decrease in record time from 5.25% to 2.25%. How many more historic events do you need to happen to understand that we face an unprecendented financial/economic crisis in this country. Maybe the historic rise of oil/gold? the historic fall of the dollar? the historic rise of grains and food stuffs? Not getting it yet? How about the historic rate of home price decline? No? still not seeing the picture? still seeing hystria around every bush? the only thing that has been keeping this economy up is low unemployment and consumer spending. Now we have consumer confidence numbers coming out not seen since the early 70’s, we have a rise in unemployment, we have consumer debt at a HISTORIC high. we have company after company reporting a sharp violient drop off in consumer spending.
What part of this picture do you not see? this isn’t about bailing out a few homeowners. this isn’t about votes or election year media coverage. It’s about our economy, our credit, our finacial systems.

If it is hystria explain why the FED is using rules not used for 70 years to bail out Bear Streans, why did the Federal government pass a 150 billion stimulus package with little deabate
unseen on April 3, 2008 at 10:06 AM

1. Bear Stearns was bought out by JP Morgan, with loan guarantees by the Fed (not a bailout), and the guarantees were necessary to keep JP Morgan in the deal.The reason the deal needed to go through is that Bear Stearns underwrites/processes 15% of the stock market and futures contracts traded daily. Were the deal to not be negotiated, the following Monday, Bear would not open for business, and the stock markets could not trade properly.
2. the stimulus package was passed quickly because….wait for it….wait for it…. it is an election year!

It is 2% problems loans but that 2% is split up into all loans by use of CDO and SIV’s therefore ALL home loans are suspect. In fact 165 of the forclosures are happening to PRIME borroers not the poor, not those with bad credit.
If it is hystria explain why the FED is using rules not used for 70 years to bail out Bear Streans, why did the Federal government pass a 150 billion stimulus package with little deabate. A government that is always split on every issue came together and passed it in record time, for washington. why is the dollar falling to record lows, gold rising to record highs? why is the stock market in a bear market during times of record company profits? Why are people paying for their gas and food with credit cards and how long can that last? what happens when that is gone? Record debt for consumers, lack of job formation, loss of wealth in homes, stocks, loss of income from savings with lower rates etc. Paints a nice little picture when you place them all together.

As far as bailout. it comes down to this. you can have a little socialism now, in and out quick and to the point, or set yourself up to have decades of it. Hoover allowed socialism to gain a 70 year foothold in this country because he believed to let free markets work without government intervention.