Althouse: "'Our system is about to collapse'? Define 'collapse.' Back to a barter system? Hunting squirrels in Central Park? Possible, but I doubt it."

February 4, 2009

"'Our system is about to collapse'? Define 'collapse.' Back to a barter system? Hunting squirrels in Central Park? Possible, but I doubt it."

Silicon Alley Insider Henry Blodget is, some readers think, "smoking the hopium."

29 comments:

The Drill SGT said...: time to invest in those 2 survivalist staples?

22LR and 223?

I doubt it; 2/4/09, 7:56 AM
George M. Spencer said...: www,cash4gold.com

I wonder how much pop it got out of that Super Bowl commercial.

Excellent spokesmen...

The beloved elderly man who was the trusted sidekick. Not a bad guy, just got a little too old to take care of his finances. He appeals to older middle-class customers...

The trashy (but non-threatening pre-gansta) rapper who repented and turned minister. He appeals to middle-aged lower-class customers.

Translation: It's not your fault you're desperate for money. You can trust Ed and Rev. Hammer.

Goodbye, age of bling.; 2/4/09, 7:59 AM
Anonymous said...: "Hunting squirrels in Central Park? Possible, but I doubt it."

Happens every day.; 2/4/09, 8:14 AM
AlphaLiberal said...: Republicans are rooting for America's failure, so deep is their hatred of Democrats.

They want the economic recovery plan to fail. And, over at Politico today, Dick "dick" Cheney is openly hoping for an attack on the US to hang around Obama's neck.

SO MUCH FOR "COUNTRY FIRST"!; 2/4/09, 8:40 AM
Anonymous said...: It's already collapsed. It's still going down, but it has to bottom out this year.

Auto sales are now selling at a pace that assumes people will replace their car once every 27 years. Simply not sustainable.

This is a great entry, if people want to have some hope.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/looking-for-sun.html

It also makes it pretty apparent that this recession has been going on for quite a while - and those who thought the economy was fine last Spring simply had their blinders on and refused to look at the underlying data.

I'm a buyer of the market at these levels.; 2/4/09, 8:45 AM
Wince said...: They want the economic recovery plan to fail.

It's the details of the plan people oppose, not the recovery itself.

Whereas calls for retreat from Iraq were calls for failure.; 2/4/09, 9:08 AM
ricpic said...: My wheelbarrow's ready. Bring on Weimar!; 2/4/09, 9:10 AM
The Drill SGT said...: DTL said...I'm a buyer of the market at these levels.

One of the smarter things you have said this year. There are bargains to be had if you are careful.

One of this problems is that the press and the Obama folks hae been driving consumer confidence even lower, which allows Rahm to exploit his crisis, and Obama to have a lower base to build from.; 2/4/09, 9:23 AM
Anonymous said...: AlphaLiberal said...And, over at Politico today, Dick "dick" Cheney is openly hoping for an attack on the US to hang around Obama's neck.

Wait, is that some kind of penis reference?

And a lynching reference as well?

Clever.; 2/4/09, 9:24 AM
Bissage said...: Hunting squirrels in Central Park?

For years now, we’ve been feeding the birds in our suburban backyard. Suet for the woodpeckers. Mealworms for the bluebirds. Thistle for the finches. Safflower for the cardinals and others. You get the idea.

And we do our best to provide them with housing and to protect them from cats and hawks and house sparrows, too.

And for all these years I thought it was pure altruism on our part.

The Lord works in mysterious ways.; 2/4/09, 9:27 AM
Simon said...: George, every time I see those commercials, I think of Richard E. Grant in Hudson Hawk: "Money will always be paper, but gold will always be gold!"

AlphaLiberal said...
"Republicans are rooting for America's failure, so deep is their hatred of Democrats. "

Bullshit. Name one person of note who has said so (and don't try to pull out the hackneyed, discredited distortion of Rush Limbaugh's remarks pushed by the leftosphere the other week).; 2/4/09, 9:41 AM
ricpic said...: In Alpha Liberal land you can't criticize the execrable Obama Administration as Cheney did, that's hate speech.; 2/4/09, 9:51 AM
Henry said...: And for all these years I thought it was pure altruism on our part.

Ah, songbird farming. Most people don't have the patience.; 2/4/09, 9:53 AM
Anonymous said...: I just purchased some stock.

But I bought a China index. They don't need approval for a stimulus plan - they just do it. And it's already helping their economy.; 2/4/09, 10:05 AM
Original Mike said...: DTL purchases some stock; 2/4/09, 10:37 AM
AllenS said...: That stock purchase was hard to swallow.; 2/4/09, 10:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Once again, AlphaLiberal projects Democratic thinking onto Republicans and condemns the projection. It is his entire modus operandi.

It is helpful, though, in that we get to know exactly what his thinking really is:

"Republicans want the U.S. to fail" = AL wants the U.S. to fail.; 2/4/09, 10:47 AM
George M. Spencer said...: Downtown--

You are a brave man. Are you investing your own money or doing so for others?

It is amazing. GE is at about 11. Sounds like a bargain.

On the other hand, when I read that Obama's Energy Secretary says California may become a wasteland, that Pelosi doesn't know how many people live in the U.S., that Obama wants to cap salaries of executives getting govt money, and that there's talk of creating a Minister of Culture, and more--like the UK P.M. saying we're in a "depression"...I get a not good feeling.

If we're not careful we're going to send up selling Hawaii to the Chinese.; 2/4/09, 11:40 AM
Simon said...: downtownlad said...
"I bought a China index. They don't need approval for a stimulus plan - they just do it. And it's already helping their economy."

Surely you don't think that's a good thing - the politburo (or whatever they call it) directs that there shall be a policy, and it is?; 2/4/09, 12:22 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Republicans are rooting for America's failure, so deep is their hatred of Democrats.

I agree, this is projection.

They want the economic recovery plan to fail. And, over at Politico today, Dick "dick" Cheney is openly hoping for an attack on the US to hang around Obama's neck.

Again, projection. I am not surprised that former VP Cheney is worried that if the Obama Administration doesn't keep up the work of the Bush Administration on terror, then there will be an increased likelihood of a terrorist attack on us.

That is what he wants - that the Obamamaniacs take the terror threat seriously and protect us from another terror attack. His worry is that President Obama will listen to some of his wackier supporters and declare that the WoT is over.

But there is no indication that Cheney is taking the next step, and hoping for an attack on this country to validate the Bush (43) Administration's WoT.

Rather that is the projection. You obviously wanted the Bush (43) Administration to fail, and so assume that Republicans would think the same about the Obama Administration.; 2/4/09, 12:25 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: The economy cannot bottom out yet, because then there would no longer be a justification for the Father of all "Stimulus" Packages to bail us out of the current recession, which would mean that the Democrats in power could not implement all of their wet dreams over the last 14 years out of absolute power without the chance of debate or investigation. As Rep. Obey pointed out, this bill is too important to implement in the next two weeks to spend time investigating what is in it or slow up its passage through debate on over a trillion (and counting) dollars of ultimate spending.; 2/4/09, 12:29 PM
George M. Spencer said...: I don't see how it helps the global economy for the President of the United States to tell Congress to act quickly risk "catastrophe."

No like scare talk. No like blame others. No like eat squirrel.; 2/4/09, 2:08 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Original George,

"Obama wants to cap salaries of executives getting govt money"

You say this like it's a bad thing. Now I'm not at all certain that we should be bailing anybody out, rather than just letting the market take its course. But given that we are, I see no reason that we shouldn't have some say in how the companies receiving taxpayer dollars are run.; 2/4/09, 2:50 PM
George M. Spencer said...: Kirk--

Imagine that you're, I dunno, a college president or a college basketball coach. Talk about overpaid, especially the college presidents.

Your team or school isn't doing well. It gets a hand-out from some billionaire alum.

One string attached: The school has to cap the salary of its new president or new coach. Because the old management is getting fired.

If that happens, do you think the college will be able to attract the best talent? Boy, it sure does need top talent, as it's down on its luck.

I'd go coach a team in China.; 2/4/09, 4:02 PM
KCFleming said...: People are going to get their socialism good and hard.

I want a button that says
I BIN UNICORNHOLED!; 2/4/09, 4:03 PM
Darcy said...: LOL, Pogo. Please, just promise to stick around and keep us laughing through the pain.; 2/4/09, 4:34 PM
Joe said...: RE: Capping salaries.

This is one of those things that sounds good, but what does it mean? Many executives take a minimal salary, making it up on stock options and/or dividends from stock they own. (This is why Warren Buffet was so "gracious" about taxing the hell of the rich; he knew it wouldn't actually apply to him.)

The end result will be an increase of corruption due to companies trying to figure out how to compensate executives at competitive rates but stay under the official caps.; 2/4/09, 5:52 PM
h. said...: Isn't that how we ended up with our healthcare system? Employers offering non-cash benefits to get around wage controls during WW2?; 2/4/09, 9:34 PM
Joe said...: Another point; combined with Sarbanes-Oxley, a salary Cap is going to cause the wealthiest corporations to move elsewhere. If Canada had any sense, they'd reduce their regulations and invite American Corporations to set up shop there. Same with Ireland and Spain.

(Perhaps some really rich Americans and Mexicans could carve out a new Lichtenstein-style tax haven in Baja or thereabouts.); 2/5/09, 11:18 AM