The stock market is down in the 30% range over a year and a half. In the prior year and a half it went up 30%.

In the three years following 911, the stock valuations declined more precipitously, in the 40% range.

You weren't watching is all.

Frankly, it should be worse, much worse. Houses, securities are still overvalued relative to the fundamentals that you learn in finance 101, still a large bubble.

And, the lifestyle that exists in much of urban areas largely, is so out of line with necessities and comfort extending to luxury as a "norm", that there is a LONG way down still, before the decision-makers experience the information that allows them to learn and decide differently.

Definitely, the kings of the hill are changing now. OIL money is again king.

The Saudis are interesting. At one point they acted as if their investments in financial and other assets had come to be more important to them than their assets in oil. I think that has leveled with oil still at $100/barrel.

They and other holders of US debt and other securities will do what they can to stabilize the markets, but they won't put themselves at fundamental risk.

The Iraq wars were fought for Saudi (and related) interests, NOT Israeli. I'm amazed that you still have blinders to that weight. (Maybe its 90-10, but nowhere close to 50-50, or predominately for Israel. The only equation that I can see that is valid is that the neo-conservatives might have considered a strong commercial Saudi Arabia as providing support for a strong commercial Israel – the COMMERCE being the common denominator).

Money only?

How about comprehensive property, skills, time, enthusiasm?

Where do you now put your assets? What do you put to work?

Sustainability, simplicity, reduction of fixed costs, confidently securing needs (shelter, fuel, clothing, food, health information/care)

Cooperation in work, skill-sharing, asset-sharing, socializing, mutual aid commitment.

A radical shift from funding speculation and conspicuous consumption to funding exchange in widely experienced needs and amenities (not luxuries).

"Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Historian John Steele Gordon described it as a "temporary period of financial dictatorship."

It would be the greatest Rape of the Middle Class of our lifetimes, not to mention the destruction of the rule of law. It would create a lasting class-based fault line in American politics, which will polarize Americans for decades, just as the New Deal did. The effect on the employment prospects of Harvard's graduating class is of trivial significance by comparison.

Read the financially-oriented blogs. Feel the rage. Politicians who missed the chance to condemn Bush's invasion of Iraq on false pretenses can redeeem themselves now, by blasting this reverse-Robin Hood ripoff as the Crime of the Century.

If Congress can appropriate $700 billion which they don't have by next week, they also can impeach Bush, Cheney and Paulson tomorrow morning. I advocate the "Four-I" policy for the lot of 'em:

- Impeach
- Indict
- Incriminate
- Incarcerate

It's time to torch these bastards, as well as close down the Federal Reserve. This nation is headed for serious social chaos, soon.

The decline of the snot-nosed paper-traders won't bother me one bit. Creativity will out. Come here to the West Coast and visit us, Phil, our energy is focused on tech – low and high, knowledge, culture, spirit, and the environment. While the masters of the universe are trembling at the possible dimming of the lights on their indoor shopping malls, we are plotting to retrofit our cities for a sustainable future.

Yes things might change. Things need to change. The way we've organized our society is unsustainable. Let's do something else now. Consuming less will make traditionally configured balance sheets look bad, but guess what, traditional balance sheets don't include a lot of vital information, including environmental impact. The larger balance sheet of the planet might benefit from an economic slowdown. Our quality of life might benefit too. Quality of life is not about amount of junk acquired. Look at the Italians, the Japanese. I would rather live like a middle-class Italian of 1968 than a similar Atlantan of 2008.

Calitics posted this on Green jobs for the economy:

http://www.calitics.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=0D4D7AE1C59EE014B4ED030888FC853B?diaryId=6989

in line with my argument (or "impressions" – not sure my rant qualifies as an argument)

While I don't know how it is going to turn out, I see two scenarios: best case, Paulsen, Bernanke & Co. work magic, and we survive largely unscathed. This is what the markets were predicting Thursday and Friday. In this case, I doubt the reforms will be effective. Sarbannes Oxley imposed massive reforms on all public corporations to document everything over extensively, so extensive as to drive new IPOs to foreign markets, giving political vent to the urge to prevent another Enron, but the Enron-type creative, leveraged manipulation of markets, futures, derivatives, swaps, off-balance sheet debt, special purpose entities to trade back and forth with, simply accelerated its growth in the hidden world of private hedge-funds, where nine figure compensation came at capital gain tax rates. McCain has already blamed SEC Chief Cox, even though he doesn't have any jurisdiction over the unregulated hedge funds, and McCain and his ilk would likely again impose new controls on the non-lobbying innocents, while the guilty bastards lawyer up and lobby up, and secure exemptions for themselves from the next round of heavy-handed regulations. Guys other than Ruben, Paulsen, and a few others, cannot come close to understanding the situation, lobbyists will be all over everything, and the likelihood of wise regulation emerging is minimal, let alone, appropriate accountability.

Worst case, the latest $700B fails to stop the panic, and there is a run on all US assets, leading to a shut down of many many financial institutions and/or hyper-inflation. This would be the end of the economic world as we know it, and "the best [would] lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." I hope for our sake Bush avoids this legacy, even though he richly deserves it.

What comes out of that is anybody's guess, but I doubt it will be couched in Marxist terms of classism or Bolshevism, which also richly deserved its own earlier failure.

Doppler

have you read "the middle mind"? you know you have

Projection – we're all doing it…