HELP...I don't understand the economic crisis at all. I hate to ask stupid

[renie408]

questions, but I have been watching CNN/MSNBC/Bloomberg 24/7 for the past week and I STILL have no clue about exactly what is going on. I get that its bad, its related to there being too much easy credit producing too much easy money floating around and...it's BAD. It also has something to do with shorting stocks and some other investment banking stuff that I really REALLY don't understand.

I listen to one expert and I think, "Bailing out is the wrong thing to do." Then I listen to another one and I think, "If we don't bail out, the world is going to come to and end and we are going to end up eating the dogs." I just don't understand any of this well enough to get a handle on it.

For immediate gratification's sake, the bail out feels good. But I really hate the idea of being blackmailed by AIG and other big financial institutes..."We fucked around and now the shit is hitting the fan, but if you don't bail us out, we'll take the whole country down with us."

Can anybody explain this in a way that I can understand well enough to turn around and explain to my 17 yr old son who has been asking me what is going on?

[NMDemDist2]

1. watch this video with him

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

the mortgage 'crisis' is just more of the same. in 2004 they allowed the banks to go to 40:1 (and higher) ratios which will make sense while watching the video

[SmileyRose]

2. I found this helpful

http://www.opednews.com/articles/IT-S-THE-DERIVATIVES-STUP-by-Ellen-Brown-080918-354.html

It's long but it's easy to understand.

[renie408]

4. Thanks. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. It's OK.

Nobody else understands the situation either. Anybody who says they do is full of shit.

[TrogL]

5. Authoritarians wanted to make social programs impossible

They deregulated everything ("the market should govern itself") so banks and other institutions were allowed to make really questionable mortages to a whole lot of people who should't have had them. Then those mortages were bundled into obscure financial packages and sold as "valuable" to investors including retirement funds. In fact, their were poisonous. Now it's all come home to roost. Rather than let "the market" regulate itself, now all those financial instituions have been allowed to crash, taking retirement funds with them. The remainder have been propped up with government funds borrowed from China. Your great grandchildren will be paying off that debt. Your pension is gone. They won't have pensions.

[Zenlitened]

15. Good post. This crisis is NOT the fault...

... of Joe and Jane Bad Citizen for not paying their mortgages.

Yes, Joe and Jane bear some of the blame, the ones who let themselves get suckered, at any rate.

But there is a REAL LIMIT to how much damage the Joes and Janes could do. We are in a CRISIS now because of the obscure investment packages you mentioned, which obliterated any natural limits and magnified the dangers a trillion-fold.

Through those packages, the financial "geniuses" turned a finite amount of potentially bad debts into a huge, mind-boggling amount of false "wealth." Paper profits based on exaggerations and empty promises.

We are NOT in a crisis because of Joe and Jane Citizen. We are in a crisis because of The People Running the Financial Show. You know: the very ones Joe and Jane are bailing out now.

:grr:

[Lancer]

6. I would like to know, too.

I studied and wrote a lot about the Depression in H.S. and college, but as history, not economics. As a liberal arts student I didn't get any firm grounding in the "fundamentals" of the economy. For a long time when I've seen shows like "Squawk Box" or "Power Lunch" come on I've just felt totally clueless, and wonder how anyone knows how to read the Quotrons at the bottom of the screen.

I'm admitting my ignorance, but I'm not proud of it. I really would like to understand how all this works. But I don't even really know where to begin. I guess there's a "Stock Market for Dummies" book out there.

[SmokingJacket]

11. I'm a liberal arts major too. I feel like I've learned a lot just reading here

There are some smart people who give good linkage.

That said, I still barely have a grasp on things...

[renate]

7. try this article by colleagues of one of the Freakonomics guys

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/diamond-and-kashyap-on-the-recent-financial-upheavals/?em

[lonestarnot]

9. Itsa pancakebunny! Woot! Haven't seen one of those in a while!

:hi:

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. A primer

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2871

Read this first. This was written almost a year ago. The unraveling has outrun people's ability to document it.

Here's the best blog I've found to keep up with the ramifications of current events.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

[taught_me_patience]

10. Here is the best primer that i've found...

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

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

12. As usual, greedy effers found a way to bilk people out of as much money as possible (short of murde.

They played on the human weakness of greed within the Republican-advanced economic jungle (E.G. NO RULES) and greatly profited.

It's really a form of economic fraud on an incredibly huge scale.

TRICK people into far greater debt than they can possibly meet.
TRICK private (SMALL) investors into believing DEBT IS GOOD by "fixing" the books.
TRICK global (big and small) into believing the books are good.
Threaten economic oppression to keep the system going (which is precisely what those fuckers are doing, NOW)
STEAL as much money as possible utilizing fictitious accounting practices!!!
Instill fear and panic.
PROFIT AND ACQUIRE EVEN MORE POWER!!!!

It's really a Republican-encouraged FRAUD ON ALL PEOPLES.

That's what it is.

[ThomWV]

13. You need to understand our money to understand the problem

Watch this and you will quickly come to understand the root of the problem:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

[cynatnite]

14. Congrats...you know more than McCain and Palin put together n/t