Bailing Out

Man! This whole bail out thing has really got everybody on edge and has got me thinking. First let me say that I am glad that the bail out did not go through. Now some people are crying that the decision fueled by Nancy Pelosi's speech caused the market to plunge. Perhaps it did, but this "crash" isn't as bad as may seem. Although the media blurbs say that it is the biggest point loss in history, that is a little misleading. It's the percentage that counts and although the 7% loss is significant, it is not the doomsday scenario that some would have us believe. Now I am no economist but I do have my beliefs. My step-father who just had his 87th birthday and who lived through the "Great Republican Depression" always advised me to be careful with credit and debt. Good advice. For this simple reason I thought that it would be pretty silly to bail out Wall Street on credit funded by the fed. And essentially to let the tax payer pick up the bill for the interest. Now I know this may seem a little slippery on my part but after reading different pieces on the subject, I feel affirmed in my opinion. The latest ariticle to do just that is one I discoved on Commondreams.org. The author, Thom Hartmann professes how bailing out Wall Street would just lead to more problems. And he points out that FDR implemented a system that helped Wall Street bail itself out by taxing the speculators and forcing investors to think twice before buying up a bunch of stock just to drive up the prices and then dump them for a profit. Everything Hartmann says makes sense to me. And of course he articulates it much better than I. Why does it matter that it makes sense to me? I am the common working man and I have no interest in bailing out a bunch of crooks while I break my back trying to get ahead.
People hang tight. Let's see if our elected officials can keep from capitulating to the current administration and in turn empower a new president who will implement a plan that works.

Big Money, Big Prizes

As a child and teenager, I used to collect money from all over the world.You know. A coin collector. But not only coins, I collected bills(paper money) as well. In fact, the paper was my favorite thing to collect. It always made me think when I would look through my collection how strange it is to have denominations of 1,000, 10,000, even 25,000. The one the held my fascination the most was a note that I have form Peru for 500,000 intis. That's right! Half a million units represented in one note. In a time that I was very happy to have a bill that represented $10, a note that big was almost incomprehensible. That bill was released in 1988. Well, That's nothing. Today the Government of Zimbabwe has released their $100,000,000,000 note. That's right:! 100 billion. They say it cant even buy a loaf of bread.
Happy spending!