> Robert Cohen wrote:

>> I try hard not to overly indict upper classes unlike Marx-Engels and
>> perhaps Krugman.

>
> Well, on this group, that's something of a relief.
>

>> You'd also perhaps be a bit wiser by saying it's a joint dynamic hog
>> feeding trough pigout venture of the rich, middle, and...i'll concede
>> the "marginal," though the sobs/ jerks that know better and aren't
>> lacking in affluency are the "most guilty."

>
> But clearly they didn't "know better". They are getting their heads
> handed to them. Many financial companies have already gone bankrupt.
> others are on the ropes, and if some of the more dire predictions come
> true there will be others, including possibly some big names, e.g.
> Countrywide.
>
> I don't claim any special prescience in this area but I don't think
> that even some of the ugliest scenarios will necessarily lead to
> "another 1929". Keep in mind that the gov't - both Hoover and
> Roosevelt - did precisely the wrong things in response, e.g. raising
> taxes and tariffs. Hopefully we won't make the same mistake again.
>

>> If you wanna argue against the New Deal, which I infer you are,...

>
> What's to defend? The economy was in as bad shape in 1938 as in 1932
> when Roosevelt took office. But maybe the policy makers of the period
> can be excused in thinking that "socialism" would be successful in
> turning an economy around. We know better now. Don't we? I mean, you
> know that, don't you?
>
> The supposed success of the New Deal is one of the great liberal myths
> of the 20th Cent. By the measure of reversing the Depression, the New
> Deal was a total failure.
>

>> then ...uh...okay, mister conservative ideologue, you're certainly
>> allowed to uphold the roaring prohibitionist, nativist and NOT Wall
>> Street-regulated nor bank-regulated 1920s.

>
> The presence or absence of regulations had little to do with it. It
> was primarily the policies of the Federal Reserve compounded by
> precisely the wrong tax and tariff policies.
>
> There was clearly enormous underlying strength in the American
> economy. But instead of encouraging and tapping it, it was strangled.
>

>> I'd luv to completely blame the GOP, though I've already conceded
>> everybody rode that sub-prime gravy train (to helle).

>
> Especially the Democrat Party's most generous contributors.
>
> Fred Weiss