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Rick Reuben wrote:

bigc wrote: Any idiot with a social studies class under their belt could have seen this coming.

Why would I even argue with an accountant?

big c wrote:I am an accountant, and I run payroll.

Accountants are like the janitors of the financial world. They clean up. Thankfully, simple computer software lets small firms do their own accounting now, or they turn over the bulk of it to some data entry person sent by Accountemps.

Bigc: zero posts on the recession or the economy. Many many posts on baseball.

The mind of bigc:

steve wrote:The rich are safe from failure, safe from the law, safe from need, and safe from repercussions from anything they might do in life.

bigc wrote:That's just a ridiculous thing to say. People do not fit that description by virtue of being rich alone.
I grew up in a wealthy household, and had to get a job when I was 16, and never had many of the trappings that most people associate with wealth. I failed at things, had runins with the cops that were in no way affected by how much money my parents made. Yes, I was safe from needing clothes, shelter and food, but can also assure you that I have never been 'safe from repercussions of anything I may do in life'. That's laughable.

It says a lot about the prejudiced bullshit notions that some people on this board have about wealth that you could somehow assert that it negates the fact of cause and effect.

Do people have a much better chance of being insulated and 'off' if they are rich? Of course.

Steve argues that the rich are insulated from common realities. bigc blurts out, "That's ridiculous"- and then ends his post with a complete contradiction: "Do people have a much better chance of being insulated and 'off' if they are rich? Of course."

Well done.

Rick Reuben wrote:

bigc wrote: Any idiot with a social studies class under their belt could have seen this coming.

Why would I even argue with an accountant?

big c wrote:I am an accountant, and I run payroll.

Accountants are like the janitors of the financial world. They clean up. Thankfully, simple computer software lets small firms do their own accounting now, or they turn over the bulk of it to some data entry person sent by Accountemps.

Bigc: zero posts on the recession or the economy. Many many posts on baseball.

The mind of bigc:

steve wrote:The rich are safe from failure, safe from the law, safe from need, and safe from repercussions from anything they might do in life.

bigc wrote:That's just a ridiculous thing to say. People do not fit that description by virtue of being rich alone.
I grew up in a wealthy household, and had to get a job when I was 16, and never had many of the trappings that most people associate with wealth. I failed at things, had runins with the cops that were in no way affected by how much money my parents made. Yes, I was safe from needing clothes, shelter and food, but can also assure you that I have never been 'safe from repercussions of anything I may do in life'. That's laughable.

It says a lot about the prejudiced bullshit notions that some people on this board have about wealth that you could somehow assert that it negates the fact of cause and effect.

Do people have a much better chance of being insulated and 'off' if they are rich? Of course.

Steve argues that the rich are insulated from common realities. bigc blurts out, "That's ridiculous"- and then ends his post with a complete contradiction: "Do people have a much better chance of being insulated and 'off' if they are rich? Of course."

Well done.

Rick Reuben wrote:

bigc wrote:And so you know, accountants produce the numbers you distort.

I dare you to enter a discussion of economics, Calculator With Two Legs.

deluded globalist Andrew L, April, 2006 wrote:Capitalism is a system. It is a relation between people mediated by my money, commodities, images, culture, institutions, and so on. It is also a set of rituals. Rituals of thought, behavior and action.

Precisely because capitalism is such an exploitative and violent system however--because misery, havoc and uneven development are its life-blood--it has always required a lot of State violence and terror to persist. Because people organize and resist.

Attempting to locate the Gordian knot or Achilles' heel of such a system in the sinister machinations of a discrete network of suits is, to be as charitable as possible, fundamentally misguided.

Andrew L. sees many relations, but no conspiracies. I bet you're one of those types, too, BigC.

Rick Reuben wrote:

bigc wrote: There is a difference between chances and absolutes.

The word 'absolutely' does not appear in Steve's quote. Steve was arguing that the odds are abundantly in favor of the rich. Because you have a slipshod mind, you misinterpeted his words initially, and then scrambled backwards in retreat at the end of your reply. Nice juggling act, Contradictor.

Rick Bob wrote:Morgan Stanley Tells You What Clocker Bob Told You In 2006

Rick Reuben wrote:Wow. Boston Globe comes through with an excellent financial article in their Sunday edition:
the black box economy

THE PAST YEAR has been a harrowing one for the world's financial markets, shaken by subprime crises, credit crunches, and other ills. Things have only gotten stranger in the past week, with stock prices swinging wildly in every major market - drastically down, then back up.

Last week the Federal Reserve announced the biggest cut in overnight lending rates in more than two decades. Congress, not to be outdone, is slapping together a massive deficit spending package aimed at giving the economy an emergency booster shot.

Despite the anxiety, nobody is stockpiling canned goods just yet. The prevailing assumption in today's economy is that recessions and bear markets come and go, and that things will work out in the end, much as they have since the Great Depression. That's because there's a collective confidence that the market is strong enough to correct itself, and that experts in charge of the financial system will understand how to mount a vigorous defense.

Should we be so confident this time? A handful of financial theorists and thinkers are now saying we shouldn't. The drumbeat of bad news over the past year, they say, is only a symptom of something new and unsettling - a deeper change in the financial system that may leave regulators, and even Congress, powerless when they try to wield their usual tools.

That something is the immense shadow economy of novel and poorly understood financial instruments created by hedge funds and investment banks over the past decade - a web of extraordinarily complex securities and wagers that has made the world's financial system so opaque and entangled that even many experts confess that they no longer understand how it works.

Here's a helpful image that shows how much risk and leverage is parked on top of the 'real world' economy.

Here we go again:

Asian markets took a tumble Monday in the wake of a pre-weekend slide on Wall Street and on concerns the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates as aggressively as previously expected.

The Nikkei 225 Average fell 2.6% to 13,274.93 by the end of the morning trading session, while the broader Topix index lost 2.7% at 1,308.36.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index shed 3.6% to 24,220.93 and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 4.4% at 13,393.88.

Could Helicopter Ben drop another 50 basis points this soon on the heels of his 75 pt handout to the insiders? Looks like anything less will cause new convulsions.