Posted On: August 22, 2007, 1:57 pm CDT

Posted By: media mogul

So many items to hit on. Here are a few:

1. Right wingers adore unregulated markets. Markets organize a lot of behavior productively but they also create a lot of chaos. Many on the right and left are saying that this credit crisis is a failure of regulation, and it is, whatever this week's clever Republican talking points may say. (And here they come now, I'm sure).

2. Our economy is phony. We, as consumers, borrow on market-imagined values of houses. Now those imagined values are collapsing. AND WE DO NOT SAVE--WE JUST CONSUME MORE. The shortfall comes from Chinese investment in US debt instruments. We are on the road to being a second rate country unless we all begin to save a little, already. But we are only doing what our Republican leaders do--spend and borrow.

3. The FED is low on options. They had to cut interest rates literally to zero to overcome the tech collapse. Now, they can't lower interest rates much because this will hurt foreign investment in US dollars which are already very weak, making them even less attractive...

4. Instead of tax and spend liberals we have suffered with not too bright spend and borrow conservies racking up record deficits giving tax breaks to the ultra-rich and fighting the wrong war in the wrong country. Foreigners have bought our debt to cover the shortfall. Trickle-down has not been driving this economy--just phony market appreciation of private homes. Now it is time for the opposite of trickle-down--UP-CHUCK. That's where the little people pay the wealthy Republicans hard dollars for their debt or get thrown in the street or both under the new Republican personal bankruptcy laws. UPCHUCK, indeed.

This is a truly scary situation and will remain so though September and October until the leverage unwinds from bank-like institutions that are not regulated like banks--e.g. KKR Capital. Where are the regulators?--put to sleep again by the free-marketeers. Was it not Neil Bush's Silverado S&L fiasco and failure that cost the taxpayers $1 billion a few years ago? It is hard to learn lessons when the rich and powerful, having bought themselves a presidency through the media, glue the textbook pages together so we can't see them.

But why object to any of this?--we insurance people are all fat dumb and happy. Like the trading company in Trading Places, we win either way! I can't wait for those higher D&O and other commissions to come rolling in! I can't wait to find out that this or that insurer is heavy into mortgage obligations that were rated oh so highly and now simply cannot be sold! (Sure hope it isn't one that pays big contingencies or that is writing my crummiest business that no one else will). They are going to need cash NOW. This should produce some interestig selling opportunities in the coming months.

Keep those markets free and let "me first and only" reap the benefits of the ensuing chaos.

This is just the first installment falling due from the policies of the past 7 years dominated by right wing crazies. Wait until you see the real cost of the war in Iraq and the many other shoes still to drop. America, no longer the world leader, is a serious possibility. Unwinding this Bush mess is going to make the sacrifices Carter was reviled for in the 1970s look like a picnic. As Laurel used to say to Hardy "This is a fine mess you have gotten us into." Way to go, right wing crazies! Eight more years!