Four really, really bad scenarios

Politico ^ | 12/17/2008 | Eamon Javers

[Travis McGee]

This reminds me of a discussion about tomorrow's deck chair arrangements on the Titanic.

More pertinent are questions about lifeboat seats.

[Mrsgell]

AMEN to what you said!!! You want this “crisis” to be over? Let the bad banks fail, the bad business fail, people go bankrupt who extended themselves. Painful? Yes, but needed or we ALL go under.

[vanilla swirl]

also WWII was won not because we had superior technology but because we could out-manufacture the rest of the world. And where does that leave us today?

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Look what one little board in California (CARB) can bring in with pollution fines:

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US303&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=carb+fines+for+violations

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

They say a civilization, like a brain, is a delicate mechanism.

[Travis McGee]

Thanks for that Panic of 73 post.

[mad_as_he$$]

The NWO is what this all about. Many countries failed to get in line so they are being forced through economic hardship to line up.

[DuncanWaring]

Obama ... But he doesn’t have the power to cause or prevent the problems - he was basically a freakin bystander.

Not strictly true.

Back in his glory days as a "community organizer", he extorted loans from banks on behalf of people who had no way whatsoever of ever hoping to pay them back, thus helping set the stage for our current predicament.

[Texas Fossil]

Welcome to New Kenya (Africa U.S.A.)

“Where the law of the jungle has replaced the Law of the Land”

What a Mess!

[dennisw]

Welcome to New Kenya (Africa U.S.A.).......

We got a big ol funky African style dictator of our own now. Wait for socialism done African style with all kinds of white,black,brown,oriental dumbasses loving it. Mugabe started out good

[dennisw]

Al Qaeada must be retarded because two well placed dirty bombs (I’m not saying where) would crash the stock market and other markets. Just magnify the white powder anthrax scares by 100,000x

[dennisw]

Another thing - we hear big news about a 50B fraud. But is that all?

Anytime you study numbers, you learn the distributions - the bell curve.

For every big chunk of something, you usually have many, many more times the amount of smaller chunks.

So if somebody hears about a 100M fraud now, they’ll just say “Hey, that’s peanuts” even though for every 50B fraud you have, there are probably literally a thousand 500M frauds.

Sorry but I've been thinking the same
Lets say Madoff is the biggest
There must be hundreds of mini-Madoff's out there
Who started out honest but then turned Ponzi because they couldn't bear to tell the truth their wife, their associates, their country club, their synagogue or church. Plus they loved the money. Worshipped the golden calf

File this one under---

                                           END OF AN ERA!

[dennisw]

“Where is Sarbanes-Oxley?”

Do we like SarbOx on FR now?

SarbOX is BS but the law must be applied equally. Get it now?

[John W]

“Get it now?”

Go back to bed and start over.

[briarbey b]

People here on FR claiming to be scared of the financial consequences of Obama might as well hang it up. Bush has set the stage for socialism to run amok, and is busy socializing the economy before he even leaves office, mostly through administrative fiat.

*******
This is true!! People are going to have to understand this is not a Republican...Democrat thing. We are ALL Americans and America is being put through the shredder! But that is ok..just keep fighting among yourselves over the petty things while this country is flushed down the toilet. It is ALL of US against a government that is growing more Beast like every day!!

[briarbey b]

Al Qaeada must be retarded because two well placed dirty bombs (I’m not saying where) would crash the stock market and other markets. Just magnify the white powder anthrax scares by 100,000x

******
Maybe they are waiting for a much bigger target. They are patient...very patient. Jan. worries me. 5 million people converging on D.C. A security nightmare. Something could have been planted 4 yrs. ago just waiting for the right cell phone. What can I say??? Its hard to think like a terrorist when you aren’t one! LOL

[GOPJ]

The Bait Effect - Terrorists... calculate that a strike now could have a “force multiplier” effect because of the already skittish U.S. stock market.

The US reaction to 9-11 wasn't fear and paralysis. Markets were functioning within days. The 9-11 tragedy united Americans and put our best qualities on the world stage. It worked against radical Islamist. That should give them pause.

[GOPJ]

The China Syndrome - The Chinese own more than $500 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds, ... mutually assured financial destruction keeps them from wielding that debt like a weapon:

This one's bad. In the short run they would be hurt by taking us down - in the long run they might be stronger. And the Chinese can afford to take a long term view - their power class doesn't have to worry about being voted out of office. Solutions need to be found.

[GOPJ]

The China Syndrome - The Chinese own more than $500 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds, ... mutually assured financial destruction keeps them from wielding that debt like a weapon:

This one's bad. In the short run they would be hurt by taking us down - in the long run they might be stronger. And the Chinese can afford to take a long term view - their power class doesn't have to worry about being voted out of office. Solutions need to be found.

[GOPJ]

what if some kind of global coalition – say a trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund allied with several countries around the world – banded together to create a gold-backed alternative to the dollar?

We would lose the ability to inflate our way out of our debt - with dire consequences. Or we could "join" in the new currency - only to lose slowly rather than quickly... This one's been talked about...