House of Imaginary Cards

“Don’t forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.” – John Dickinson

I was astounded to read on Bloomberg news that, despite the lost of over 500 thousand jobs last month, and the current toilet-bowl rated economy, somehow the Dow Jones Industrial Average (and also S&P 500 and a bunch of other indicators) were going up as of 3:00pm EST. Why, you ask? Because some asshole in a suit made something up out of thin air. Some turd in an expensive suit said they thought they would make money because people are still buying “In Case Shit”. In fact, the entire idea behind the statistics induced fraud campaign we call the insurance industry is the same concept as the financial derivatives called credit default swaps. Yeah, really makes me want to trust them.

But really, is anyone worried that the financial future of this country is based on a bunch of guys making stuff up? Not that people in government don’t do the same thing, but these jokers actually make a living doing it. And even after an ungodly amount of capital being infused, the banks here don’t want to make loans, which was the entire reason we gave them so much money. Well, that and probably servicing Paulson. That guy has “I’m a cheap corporate whore” written all over him.

We’re probably going to let the auto industry fail miserably. I’ve advocated that before, but I’m not certain that we wouldn’t benefit from some sort of intervention. Definitely *not* bailing out assholes like Rick “I Deserve All My Millions For Losing Tons of Money for GM” Wagoner, that’s for sure. Maybe socializing pension and healthcare benefits, maybe something else. Michael Moore had an interesting take, being from that region of the country.

Anyway, it’s not like something is going to swoop in and save America from another recession/depression. We’re apparently losing our homes at an ever quickening rate, and it doesn’t look like there’s any relief in sight. You know, it would be wonderful to just declare that your mortgage was getting better and have it magically get better. Kinda sucks the rest of us live in the “real” world.