[cacophony]

also i agree that the fed is wrong. the housing crisis is bad, and it will likely precipitate a credit card default crisis, but we're much better off enduring the short-term hardship than exacerbating our problems by putting so much money and energy into bailing out people who live by failed personal economic policies.

personally i think we're seeing the leading edge of a giant mushroom cloud with the word "credit" scrawled out in debris. it's not just the policy of personal debt that the majority of our citizens live by, it's the federal government itself that has been living off of debt.

we've been playing funny money imaginary math for too long. if i borrow, and you write me an IOU, and i invest that IOU in futures against profits that haven't been earned yet, and someone speculates that those numbers will grow in 2009, WE'LL ALL BE RICH, RIGHT?!?!?!??! LET'S SPEND MORE!!!!

it's unsustainable in the long term.