[Falconoffury]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't stop laughing at all the buffoons out there who made all sorts of stupid financial decisions over the past few years. I'm talking about people who are leveraged over their eyeballs with house payments, car payments, loan payments, student loans, and other loans. I'm talking about the people who are pawning their wedding rings for gas money, or using credit cards to pay off other credit cards. I'm talking about the people who had 5 kids with a combined household income of under 40k per year. I can't stop laughing at all the ARM holders who didn't even read the 30 page mortgage contract they signed, and are now in foreclosure. I can't stop laughing at the flippers who bought 5 houses, and can't sell any of them.

Have people always been this dumb? If I recall, and I could be completely wrong, people were just a little smarter in the 80s and 90s. People saw value in saving money. People didn't accept houses at very unreasonable prices. People saw debt as a bad thing to have. People knew what an asset was. Has the school system failed us? Has our drug and toxin laced food killed our brains?

I don't know what the hell happened, but I look around and all I see are brains that have shut down. I'm laughing in sadness, and yet... I can't stop laughing. I remember something that holmes said months ago, "You made your bed, now rot in it." Am I a bad person?

[Jack]

You ask if the school system has failed us. No - rather, it is society that has trained individuals to ignore consequences.

Every time a social safety net is deployed, it permits people to do really foolish things and avoid the full consequences. If the credit cards and ARMs overwhelm them, bankruptcy is available. If there is no food in the house, various resources are made available.

Not to worry - harsh lessons will be forthcoming, and a deeper appreciation of consequences along with them.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'H')ave people always been this dumb?

[sciencegirl]

Yes indeed

I am laughing too. Some people are not very bright. When I told my friends about peak oil, most of them thought I was being foolish. We will see how foolish I am when oil hits $300 a barrel.

I will get the last laugh.

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'I')'m talking about the people who had 5 kids with a combined household income of under 40k per year.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')m I a bad person?

[strider3700]

the company I work for lost a big contract about a month ago. This accounted for 40% of our income. We've laid off about 30% of the work force to compensate for this fact. More may be needed and we're changing course on a lot of what we do to compensate. Everyone knows that nothing is stable.

Last monday one of the girls showed up with her brand new Jeep liberty.
Last tuesday another girl was laid off.
Last friday the receptionist showed up with a new charger that she was test driving. She was going to order one with the hemi and a different interior but had that one to drive around for a bit.

I can't believe how dumb these people are.

[oowolf]

It's a Malignant Egophrenia Epidemic!! Run!! Run for your very lives!!
http://baltimorechronicle.com/011305PaulLevy.shtml

[Chaparral]

I picked up some nice 10 oz silver bars at below spot from someone who was overleveraged and needed gas money.

I'm hoping for enough "dumb people" to remain dumb long enough to finish offloading my income properties and execute plan "D".

[holmes]

werd falcon ole boy. I am deluged with horror economic stories almost everyday. and here I am walking, eating and living at the bottom of the food chain. How can I have compassion? I dont. I laugh internally. The screams of suffrage of all have lost all meaning. No your not mean. Realists arent mean. Horrors are forthcoming. even the non belivers I know understand what is coming. In fact had a big discussion on investing with a professional investor this morning. She told me bail all investments within 20 years. Thats for china/india. American within 10. The facade is coming down like a hammer. Ill be readyas ready as I can. I plan on buying that land and modular in sweet ag land for a pittance. shes fdropping. FK em all who have pissed away ourinheritance and demand a profit from their cyborg investments. Ill take their shit. I gots cash in hand. flat out buy it. angry MF free man green anarchist. Republican? Yawn. Getting old. need for new vision.

[holmes]

Reading Collapse right now. all about land use. Im in the land use field profession. Nothing that I already did not know. we are fucked. aware? or die basically.

[holmes]

bloats in the suv, rv, tanks are looking a bit frayed from my on foot view. Lookin for resources to keep their pathetic lie going. They will be dangerous pigs soon enough. The suv materialist whores will be raging. I see some carnage coming. The materialist whores force their bloated hubbies into violence to get them "theirs". I see rage. Interesting topic. Hellion materialists?

[mmasters]

All of the history of central banks has been about boom bust cycles. We can only print away and borrow from the future for so long until the reckoning day comes.

I actually think we've gone too far past point - what's kept it from blowing up is all the patch work behind the scenes - think a superior version of Enron. However in this case they keep plugging up the dam until the time is "just right" to burst it.

Funny enough, I see a potential solution to peak oil, the debt situation in the US, the rise of China, consumerism and much more...

I'm starting to think within a few years there will be some fear-mongering "big event". The markets will go to hell - stocks, real estate, treasury bonds, there will be a dollar crisis (perhaps a fannie/freddie default as a scapegoat leading to a US treasury bond crisis of some sort). People drain their accounts out of the markets into gold in mass.

Gold soars, the US government undergoes a major restructuring, lays off tons of government employees. The central banks crash the gold markets, use the gain to buy up the renegotiated government debt. Then afterwards, the post crash gold is gobbled up on the cheap by the central banks.

It's a 1-2 punch. The markets go to hell, big money grab. People bail into gold, it crashes, next big money grab. At the end of the day you have a worldwide depression and the world's savings have been manipulated to salvage the US. The middle east and asia get a raw deal on their US treasuries; the "big event" and the restructuring has the US population effectively controlled from revolting, China gets knocked down to size; the rich get richer and more powerful; the US is quietly on top again (all things considered); Hank Paulson gets his legacy. And of course with all the demand destruction for oil the peak oil disaster is staved off 10-20 years.

What do you guys think? Probably impossible to say how it will exactly play out but I sense something like this coming.

[holmes]

the wealthy will be just the last to die. Nothing too complex. Just death and collapse. Dont read too much into it. Bottom line: collapse.

[Denny]

Some of the most foolish are the ones at the upper end of the economic ladder. When Genral Motors offers five year financing with no significant credit checking, you have to wonder how many people taking advantage of the deal are going to default.

And, just what percentage of its original worth is GMAC going to get for that Chev Silverado 3500 dually pickup with its 350 V8 after its three years old, with 47,000 miles on the odometer? Especialy when it needs six new tires and has dings on the body and deep gouges in the box?

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', 'S')ome of the most foolish are the ones at the upper end of the economic ladder. When Genral Motors offers five year financing with no significant credit checking, you have to wonder how many people taking advantage of the deal are going to default.

[Lighthouse]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'I') don't know about the rest of you, but I can't stop laughing at all the buffoons out there who made all sorts of stupid financial decisions over the past few years.

...

[Eli]

I do not think it is that funny I know a lot of people like the ones you described Falcon.

The reason we are in such a sorry mess right now is because very wealthy people at the top wanted to be insanely wealthy. The bankers and financiers are going to still be sitting at the top of the heap when all this shakes out.

The poor fools that are going to be crushed as this economic collapse sets in deserve our pity not our derision.

In the US it seems that the Uber-rich are already making plans to save themselves. Robert Pastor Vice Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations has already laid out plans for a boarder-less North America.

[Falconoffury]

The uber rich got that way because the middle class let them. If people were smarter about their finances, and consumed less, we wouldn't be nearly as bad off as we are.

[mgibbons19]

I wouldn't laugh at em. Ppl learn what they are taught. And noone has taught financial prudence for decades. It's a great big mousetrap (mogambo) and if/when it snaps shut, there's gonna be a lot of suffering. Kind of sad really. Might be funnier if it was a little less close to home. I know all those ppl.

IIRC aren't you living in your folks' suburban mchouse somewhere on the ring of mn/stpl? Aren't those your folks that are getting fvcked right now or soon?