Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I know where to find a lot of money!

We spend $522 billion per year on defense (http://www.borgenproject.org/Defense_Spending.html). China, our biggest threat, spends $63 billion. Who the hell are we protecting ourselves from? Chop that down to $200 billion per year so the hawks don't freak out, and you've got $322 billion right there.
We have almost 2.5 million Americans in prison (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1020/p08s01-comv.html). It costs on average $24,000 per year per inmate. That's $60 billion. Cut that 1/3 by using alternative sentencing and treatment for dug offenders, and there's $20 billion.
So in about 10 minutes I've found $340 billion to be used toward our deficit. Of course, Wall Street and the banking system are eating up twice that much just to cover up their mistakes, so maybe it's a losing battle. But there's a start anyway.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

is it time for a Luddite revival?

Maybe Luddites have it right in a way. At least then you can't get ripped off by ONE GUY who steals $50 BILLION!!! And the whole economy won't crash because some dork thought up some kind of worthless paper to sell that the smartest guys in the room actually BUY even when they don't understand it.
Let's go back to at LEAST conservative banking, huh? Force them to just use pencils and paper, and deal only in things that 3rd graders can understand.

Monday, December 15, 2008

we're not the world economic leader anymore

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPCz.TWS8j.Q&refer=home

So our ecomic system is so lax we can allow one guy to rip off people for $50 billion (yes that's a b). Our economic system is so lax we allow the entire system to go belly up because we don't want "government restrictions" on our financial institutions. Do you think after such collosal blunders were allowed that foreign countries will still look up to the US as an economic template? Nope.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

time for an economic system revamp

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12scheme.html?ref=business

So this guy can run a $50 billion scam and nobody notices. AIG goes hugely into debt and nobody notices. Ratings firms give crap AAA ratings. When one person and one company can cause this much damage, that means the system is broken. Time for a revamp. Go back to the solid economic conservative rules that provide security and stability. Let individuals play with their money, but don't let so few control so much. The results of that we're going to have to live with for a long time.

$50 Billion scammer?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/business/12scheme.html?ref=business

How could a financial system allow such a thing to go on? I do believe our economic system is broken. To many thieves, not enough oversight, or something.