09-24-2008, 04:00 PM
Typical overly simplified look at the entire ecosystem.
We are talking about a component of the economy that drives liquidity being allowed to collapse. The effect on the overall economy has nothing to do with one person getting a check from the gummint, and everything to do with the overall economic ecosystem dying.
Investment banks are essentially the intestines- they take in liquidity and convert it into more liquidity, moving it around. Or, to paraphrase Thorton Wilder, "Money is like Manure. It needs to be spread around to encourage things to grow."
Allow the intestines to die off.. well, that actually happened to a dear friend of ours last weekend. And she died within 2 days, in great pain (inoperable).
Politicians like to talk about 'who gets the money' because they can then theoretically control the person who gets the 'check'. In this case, it's all of us.
The patient on the table is our entire economic system, and by extension the entire world's economic infrastructure. The patient is cut open, and the doctors (congress) are pausing with their scalpels in hand. Do SOMETHING, dammit !
We are talking about a component of the economy that drives liquidity being allowed to collapse. The effect on the overall economy has nothing to do with one person getting a check from the gummint, and everything to do with the overall economic ecosystem dying.
Investment banks are essentially the intestines- they take in liquidity and convert it into more liquidity, moving it around. Or, to paraphrase Thorton Wilder, "Money is like Manure. It needs to be spread around to encourage things to grow."
Allow the intestines to die off.. well, that actually happened to a dear friend of ours last weekend. And she died within 2 days, in great pain (inoperable).
Politicians like to talk about 'who gets the money' because they can then theoretically control the person who gets the 'check'. In this case, it's all of us.
The patient on the table is our entire economic system, and by extension the entire world's economic infrastructure. The patient is cut open, and the doctors (congress) are pausing with their scalpels in hand. Do SOMETHING, dammit !