[PerConPat]

Honest societies? Are you under the impression that we used to have one?

Hmmm...Interesting point...Do you believe that a predominantly honest society is possible? At any rate, when people are without the means to secure credit by other than socialist remedies for what they perceive to be the problems in their lives, e.g. a much too humble house etc., a Barney Frank will be only too helpful to arrange a corrupt loan. It's the chicken or the egg, again. I believe bubbles are avoidable if the majority of a society is honest. But, if one believes honest societies can't exist, then economic disaster is certainly on the way at all times.

I am not yet willing to believe that the current mess is the result of the ups and downs of a typical business cycle.

[arrogantsob]

Our Founders tried to avoid allowing too much democratic influence within the federal government in order to limit the impact of demogogues vying for the people’s vote with promises of milk and honey. Those protections have been systemically eroded.

We were to have only the House as the reflector of democratic sentiment through the popular vote. Now the Senate is elected that way as well.

Now what is possible is to clamp down on the money supply so tightly that there is little or no credit available. This, howeve, stifles economic growth and results in lower incomes all around not to mention political uproar and conflict.

I think we know that man being a fallen creature is incapable of forming on his own an honest society.

[djsherin]

The current crisis is due to the government forcing down interest rates for so long continually trying to avoid recession. We should have had a deep recession after the tech bubble, but instead we decided to spend spend spend and blow our money on consumer goods and with legislation like the CRA, we developed the much worse housing bubble. The government is still trying to get us to spend, but what we need to do is save, and make no mistake it will be painful, but this consumption based economy can’t last forever and the longer we put it off, the worse and longer the eventual recession/depression is going to be.