Depression 2.0

[BO]

Let's mark this day as the start of this century's great depression.

The bank bailout bill -- aka 'the septic bank bill -- has failed and the DOW dropped 778 points today. Undoubtably, not the big crash yet to happen. The credit markets are frozen. As Paul Krugman states...the gears on wallstreet are full of sand.

You might not have been affected yet. You will. Let's hear some personal stories on what folks are doing to prepare. Have you stocked the pantry yet? Do you have a contingency plan should you lose your job? Supposedly the run on banks has started. Have you moved your savings out of the bank? What are doing about about your investments--your 401k, pension, etc.

Maybe you'll say, 'I ain't got nothing, so I got nothing to lose'. Truth is, unless you're homeless, with everything you own in the shopping cart you're pushing, well, that ain't exactly true. Maybe the reality of the situation hasn't hit yet. It will soon.

Welcome to the next great depression. So, what's your contingency plan?

[Mouse]

Well I haven't got any savings, pension or suchlike. Never had a car of my own or been a driver, had a couple of good bicycles in my lifetime and a tricycle for a couple of years. Had a child seat on one side and my shopping basket on the other. Never could manage modern life, the speed. Always need to think. Looks as though everything is slowing down now.

My contingency plan is to plod onwards and carry on doing my job as a node in the scheme of things. I'm going to have to learn to make pastry, I've done it a few times, but I think I need to get the hang of it so as to make good pasties. Mind you, if you make dough as for bread, using wholemeal flour, then break it up into roll size pieces and wrap each piece around some sliced onion, cheese and tomato with herbs and seasoning, then bake it... tis tasty and makes a sustaining lunch.

And the other thing I've forgotten, is how to make decent dumplings. I keep on forgetting the proportions and they're so nice in stew.

I must get some alfalfa seeds for sprouting, they are particularly good for your health.

[Mouse]

778 points, that is a lot. Very surreal at the Conservative Party Conference by the looks of things. Big grins on some faces that really ought not to have been there. It couldn't possibly have got through to them, the scale of it. Suppose that's changed now. They'll be crying in their rooms, some of them.

At this moment it seems to me that by failing consistently I have at last succeeded. My God I'm lucky.

[pan]

I don't know what to think. I know that the Bailout was the Shock Doctrine gone large. That Bush, Paulson and Bernanke pronounced a crisis in order to have Congress authorize printing $700bn more. I am relieved that the bad lady from S.F. hurt the little Republicans' feelings so they got petulant and voted against it. Congress was panicked when it voted authorization for the Iraq invasion, it was panicked when it voted for the PATRIOT act and it was acting in panic when it voted for this massive Inflationary Act (making the rates of inflation go up to about 680% per year).

Wall Street reacted with a wild swing down. It was the biggest swing ever numerically. This is bad. The Market has sucked out all of the credit and business runs on credit and jobs run on credit and the American economy runs entirely on the willingness of the Americans to buy things on credit. It is all based on the consumer confidence level which has crashed - Bush, Paulson and Bernanke told us that Congress has to give away all of this money, McCain rode into town like a Roughrider to save the day.

But, the inflation this bill would cause, the distinct possibility that our foreign creditors will finally wise up and realize that the uncle in the garish top hat is an oil junkie who is just jonesing for another fix - would the cure be worse than the ailment?

[Mouse]

I found this rather illuminating, and celebrated my freedom today by sending a few emails to people at the Treasury over here asking them nicely to watch these videos,
presenting them in reverse order thus:



The reason I sent the emails to the Treasury, overcoming my deep sense of distrust and distaste for those in authority, was because in the second video I think it is, Naomi Klein says that senators are standing up to Wall Street because their constituents are informing them of their research, it seems that they didn't know. Wow.

So I thought I'd better share a little more. It seems more important to do that and keep on learning than to do anything else right now. We might be about to step into Paradise.
Just think of it, everything turned on its head, the meek inheriting the earth.
I heard someone on the radio say that money flow is so important because it ensures that everyone does the right job at the right time. Hmmm.

[curt]

For clarities sake, it's a global bailout, not limited to the US. The crisis is global in nature and so is the reaction, or the effect;

Bank Bailouts Come to Europe

Brown, Merkel May Be Pushed Into Paulson-Type Bailout (Update2)

quote

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- European politicians are discovering what cometh after pride.

A week after lambasting the U.S. for allowing its banks to run out of money and after resisting calls to set up their own rescue mechanisms, leaders across Europe yesterday bailed out banks from Belgium, Germany and the U.K. Dexia SA today received aid from France and Belgium, while Ireland's government said it would guarantee bank deposits and debt for two years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown may be forced to advocate a comprehensive approach of the kind U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are urging Congress to pass.

end quote

All the while, this little chicken is applying for a job in Switzerland. I'm currently playing cat & mouse with the designated human resource chess master in Ecublens. Of course, the meltdown and crisis will play a role in my decision. What has motivated me to apply for the job after all, in spite of already having decided against the move, is the crisis and the possible effect it will have on my current employer. I need to get through the next ten years, financially unscathed. Is it possible? I doubt it. But I have to try. Will it do my marriage good? I doubt it but unemployment would be worse.

Meanwhile, I need to get a large container of rice and maybe one of beans and one of wheat meal flour. Need to get more dry wood. What we have for the upcoming winter should suffice. Should. But we wouldn't have anything for next year. This house is full of candles and not just the pretty, scenty kind. We have sleeping bags and blankets and a damned good wood stove....have it fired up just now matter of factly. It's raining and it's cold. Nice and cumfy in here. Think we can stock up on some medical supplies as well : all the stuff one would need for a flu and for the big "D". Cola and salt sticks work wonders for the bid "D" but who's gonna have that when it counts? Charcoal tablets are better. A remnant from the past.

My mind is scattered. I've achieved nothing since I last spent thought on this. Nothing. Spent this last weekend riding my bike, both Saturday and Sunday. Gotta get off that trip. It's pissing in the wind.

[BO]

Seems to capture the sentiment of the American people nicely...



Appears the crises has been averted by the congress being unable to act--the market is back up 475 points. Pop those corks boys.

Come friday, the day after Sarah Palin and Joe Biden debate ought to send the markets reeling again after people come to realize that McCain's running mate is a complete buffoon.

BO needs to get off his ass and sell his sailboat. Didn't use it all year--too busy. I need the money for a good bio-mass stove. Don't think I want to deal with wood anymore, and gas is getting too expensive. Then again, I'm not sure about nixing the wood idea. Gotta research. Gotta get off my ass.

[curt]

sell the boat, not so sure. My most recent résumé had a bullet named "mobility". Nuff said, fred.

Hell, I dunno. Stove is mucho more importanté. Without a doubt.

JUMP YOU FUCKERS !

Excellent reflection of general sentiments. Laughed my ass off at that to the point of almost (!) being thrown out of my own living room. ;-(>

Don't unner estimit Palin. She's plain. Plain Palin. Fuckomatico !

Of course Joe will win. I'm just sayin', VORSICHT !!! BISSIGER HUND !!!!

Dontscha guys just luv it when I speak in foreign tongue? Habala habala bla bla ga ga na no nö ge öla.

Sorry. The Devil made me say it. No, Palin did. Yeah, Palin made me do it.

[BO]

Bo's contingency plan is to sell everything 'round the homestead that isn't bolted down. The biggest mind shift I've had recently is to get rid of the anchor of owning shit. I don't want to own nothing that I can't eat.

Yet, my wife--like most ladies--is a major junk collector. She's like a crow. Anything she sees that's shiny or glitters comes home with her. 10% of our income goes for crap.

I loves her though. I'd turn into the uni-bomber if she weren't around.

[pan]

Back up the panic attack Jack - it ain't the Depression v. 2.0 yet:

At the close, the Dow rose 485.21, or 4.68 percent, to 10,850.66 after falling nearly 7 percent on Monday to its lowest close in nearly three years. It was the largest point drop and 17th largest percentage drop in the blue chip index. The percentage decline was far less severe than the 20-plus-percent drops seen in the stock market crash of October 1987 and before the Great Depression.

The economy is in crisis but it ain't as bad as the solution they are proposing. Go back and look at what Bushco has been selling us with Iraq, PATRIOT act and now this one and then re-read Naomi Klein.

On the other hand, it does make sense to be ready for the crashing of services

[pan]

This might explain the real reason for the sudden rush for bailout.

[Cal]

This piece from the World Watch Institute puts the financial crisis in its global perspective quite nicely I think.

"Today, our planet supports 6.5 billion human beings. Those numbers are growing by 70 million people each year, and global consumption levels are soaring, as China and other countries enter the consumer age. The economic model that has supported unprecedented economic progress for several hundred million people in industrial countries over the past half century cannot possibly meet the growing needs of the more than 8 billion people who will live on this planet by the middle of this century.

The events of the past year have provided graphic reminders that collapsing economic systems have real human impacts-and that the world's poor, who are most directly dependent on natural resources, will suffer first and suffer most:

In Haiti, the impact of three large hurricanes this summer was magnified by the vast deforestation that has left millions of people vulnerable to floods and landslides.
In West Africa, the decline of local fisheries has left thousands of poor families without a livelihood and in some cases with no source of affordable protein.
Across large areas of the Indian subcontinent, diminishing supplies of fresh water are undermining food production and leaving people with inadequate drinking water.
And from the Arctic to the Equator, the world's climate is changing rapidly - and undermining ecological systems on every continent, from forests to oceans and fresh water. Many scientists believe that a dangerous climate tipping point may be near-unleashing a runaway greenhouse effect that would feed on itself for centuries to come.

The bottom line is clear: the inefficient, carbon-intensive, throwaway economy that was so successful in an earlier era is not suited to today's world. Our planet in now in mortal danger of an ecological collapse whose human impact would dwarf the financial collapse the world is now seeking to avoid. "

[BO]

Write your thesis on how this depression will create a mass of migrant workers just like the last great depression. Take your laptop and hit the road as a hobo--writing as you go. Take a camera. Record the next series of great depression photos for future history books. Collect your degree and a nobel prize for your photos. Have Spike Lee produce a movie based on your experiences. Go to Hollywood parties. Meet and marry Michele Monagham. Invite your RBC friends to the wedding. Live happily ever after.

No worries.