Marching Toward Zombieland

[David Owen]

"All these tensions beat a path into the holiday season when emotions run high, when blessings are counted and sorrows taste most bitter. So the big question now floating above the sheer data of Goldman Sachs profit announcement is: what kind of year-end bonuses will they dare to pay their executives and minions, and how will the "people" react? It seems to me that conditions are ripening for a bloodbath. The kind of heinous acts that we have feared emanating from foreign "evildoers" since the awful stunt of 9/11/01 are now most likely to come from among our own "people" - a few pounds of Semtex in the lobby of Goldman Sachs's New York headquarters... a few men with market-grade small arms converted to full-automatic outside on the Wall Street sidewalk one evening at holiday time when the suits are leaving work for the day.... It won't take much."


Marching Toward Zombieland
http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/10/marching-toward-zombieland.html

[Kevin]

As a notable optimist...

I tend to like this part:

"President Obama had better strike first. He's about the only figure left in the whole termite mound who has a shred of even potential credibility left because he still has the power to act. He can instruct the people who work for the executive branch to "claw back" any and all ill-gotten bank bonuses; he can direct the Justice Department to investigate everything from the uses of federal bailouts to grand-scale accounting fraud; he can fire people in high places who have failed to act and lost legitimacy..."

[Ed Ziomek]

Dave and Kev...

I am on the optimist side, and you have every right to present your opinion or that of others, but to re-state strong words of someone else about "bloodbaths", and plastic explosives, and naming a Wall Street powerhouse, that to me is on the dangerous side and unfortunate.

Where in your entry do you condemn such actions?

It may be a geographical thing, in that East Coasters might find David's entry "unfortunate", "uncomfortable", probably "wrong to mention", while at the same time accepting the honesty.

I want to stay on the statistics side of the "awfulness", that as of last week, only 54 jobs in the State of Connecticut were created by the stimulus package, at a cost efficiency of $9 million per job, while 6000 foreclosures per day are still happening in our country.

9 jobs were created in Rhode Island.

Let's measure our words carefully, -The fantasizing of what disasters could happen, Americans are above all that, and East Coasters are on high vigilance to prevent such things from happening, because on the lowest common denominator of things, it may happen.

Let's stay vigilant, stay optimistic, realistic... for the most part, Jobs have NOT been created, how can we change that one factor? How can we extricate ourselves from Afghanistan, and win the future of the Middle East, win the peace, respecting their cultures and rights of self determination, even if they are nightmare-choices to us? Since when do you win by bullets and bombs alone? But shut my mouth, we put Congress in charge to decide, I support them.

And if I read your words, also like you, I will support this Obama government as best I can humanly do, even if I disagree!

Life is a highway... potholes and all... Rascal Flatts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvsmRuRp4cM

[Richard Haut]

It used to be considered that once unemployment went above 25%, then civil security could no longer be guaranteed.

I was living in the City of London during the first of the Globalization marches. Nasty - very nasty. A friend (Director of a bank) sneered at the march. I warned him to be careful - you can only tread on people for so long, and then they come back with guns.

The financial institutions failed because of their own dishonesty and greed - they were rescued with public money. Now they want to steal that as well.

If honest people find that their own small businesses are failing and they risk losing their homes because of the mess that has been caused in the economy, don't expect their gratitude, but Britain especially should note the historic precedent. Hitler's rise to power was helped by one main factor: the impoverishment of the Middle Classes.

I believe that there is a very serious risk of a crash in Sterling (it has already lost over 30%). If that is repeated, Britain is wiped.

While we may not approve of such actions, let's not be too surprised if bank buildings go up in flames.

Interestingly here in France it is seen firmly as a banking crisis - Sarkozy wants bonuses capped, banks controlled fiercely. Punish the crooks - not their victims.

(Anybody who objects to the term 'crooks' should read the book F.I.A.S.C.O. on the nature and purpose of many financial instruments).