by pedalling_faster » Tue 07 Oct 2008, 22:29:40
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jasonraymondson', '
')COLLAPSE
COLLAPSE
COLLAPSE!!!!!!!!!!
if the various collapse change communities had an intramural athletic league, that would be a good image for the jerseys.
the news items at this point are an onslaught, a deluge. F'ing ICELAND ! bank has been nationalized or something. the synchronicity of all these events, this is different. for a year it was something major every 2 or 3 months. now it's been something MAJOR major every few days since some time in September. the week the Fed announced the $700 billion whatever, the next week WaMu is seized on a Thursday, it's been non-stop like that for 3 weeks.
if you had a graph of events like the 1987 Stock Market Crash plotted against time, it would be obvious that there's been a point of inflection starting sometime around mid September where the curve goes like the Fed's non-borrowed reserves curve
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BOGNONBR
just going off a cliff. so i think the "it's bunker time" statement is accurate, this is the beginnning of the time when we will hear about food not being delivered because someone didn't have money for truck fuel, because their bank collapsed.
i think one of the things that makes doom appealing is the acknowledgement in the physical universe of what many people have suspected, that the version of American capitalism based on fraud and debt doesn't work very well. or perhaps you could say, f*cking doesn't work. it's a little like the moment in the Matrix when Morpheus gives the spiel to Neo and offers him the red pill blue pill. i forget which pill is the illusion and which pill is reality. so now everybody who may have tried to warn their family about this storm, might be able to have a conversation about the storm.
but there's one thing. this is still pre-Peak Oil. the 2005 peak was superceded by a 2007 peak. maybe the peak will turn out to be the period of time starting 3 weeks ago.
most companies haven't even announced their 3rd quarter results. Bank of America has reported a 68% drop in income for the 3rd quarter, all those service fees they charge us have not been sufficient to maintain profits.
misc. "terrible" Yahoo finance news
to provide narrative, Bernanke has come out with another quotable quote.
Crisis could prolong economic pain
i think that's a very safe statement

an economic crisis will prolong economic pain. and he's one of the smarter people in the Bush administration. he is the cavalry, or the head of the cavalry. he's General Custer in the war on economic collapse.