Pretty amazing this comic is from 1934. What is that saying again? Something about those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Our government is filled with a bunch of group think retards. Few of which have the ability to come up with an original idea, and none of which have the fortitude to see one through to fruition.

You have got to be kidding me...the redundancy is amazing. Not that securitization is a bad thing, but to think that doing the same thing that got us in the financial mess is going to be what gets us out is pretty naive.

...

Urban Survival...

"V" is for Velocity

It came to me in a flash of insight on Wednesday afternoon: No matter how much money the Obama administration, the Treasury, and the Fed, pump into the economy, if consumers cut back spending enough, then we're all screwed and no amount of printing will kick-start the economy.

So I called Cliff up at www.halfpasthuman.com and began the conversation by asking "You know why the economy is going to continue collapsing?" His answer was something to the effect "Gee, because you can't capitalize debt?" Oops, he's already there.

Still anxious to share my epiph, my next call was to my consigliore: "Hey, you know why this Second Depression augurs in anyway this coming fall when another leg down should get rolling? Velocity!"

His answer was almost like Cliff's: "Yeah...that's been in my model since 1979...the only question is about the timing of when the policy decision will be made to kick inflation into gear to bail the economy out because bouts of inflation usually only last four years versus deflations which go a decade..."

Hmmm. Must be preaching to the choir. If you have a less smart group of friends, though, you might point to the story we talked about yesterday (about credit card use falling like crazy) that's being reported today under headlines like "Fed: Credit Card Debt Down Almost 10 Percent" and dazzle your friends with a snappy short discourse on what happens when velocity (collapsing transaction counts) overrules policy intentions.

Let me know how many folks you put to sleep.