The comments on settlement patterns and housing are going on and on with good comments but several sub-threads make it hard to follow. We need Jim Bacon back to keep enough topics on the table so that the comments stay at a manageable number. We will jump in later to try to answer some of the questions, we may miss some, sorry.
Here is a new topic: Bailouts For All.
“Free market” folks must be in apoplexy over the news: a $200 Billion bail out here, a $200 Billion bail out there… The only times that the gambling venue called the NY Stock Exchange has gone up is on news of anther “big government” bailout or a collapse creating opportunity for bottom fishers.
You can see why we wanted to get “Good News: Bad Reporting (Jim Bacon’s 5 March post) before he left for Wyoming. Today, WaPo’s economic columnist Steven Pearlstein calls the current unpleasantness “the most serious financial market crisis since the Great Depression.” He makes some other points that are worth reading too.
Those of us who are concerned about the trajectory of society and the future of democracies with market economies can only shake our heads and ask: Why did not more people listen in 1973?
As you might guess, we believe Robert Reich has a number of answers in Supercapitalism.
EMR