The Major media is too busy glorying in a mud-wrestling match between the Obama camp and the Clinton mob to report anything at the convention with serious content. In his speech Tuesday night Dennis Kucinich gave a straight dose of what people need to hear; the convention crowd was cheering every line.
For all the media attention it got, he might as well be speaking to himself.
– Fran, Caroline, Phyllis & Eva-Lee
Granny Peace Brigade 
Sing it out, sisters — people need to know there is something more to the ‘Party Line’ than just the ‘Paty Line”. We are in your debt.
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Edith put together well-researched, thoughtful and intelligent comments. Unfortunately, their basic premise and therefore the conclusions are incorrect, in my opinion. Specifically:
* The key to this situation — and indeed to practically everything else that’s nasty, brutish, and unfortunate in the world — is to be found in Freud. I.e. Human nature, universal and eternal. What Keynes simplistically called “animal instincts” and others may call greed, the pursuit of power, and all the rest. Fight or deny it as much as you like, it’s simply there. Always has been. To sweep that under the rug because it’s ugly EXCERBATES THE SITUATION, AND MAKES DEALING WITH PROSPECTIVE SOLUTIONS DOOMED TO FAIL.
* I doubt if Edith would consider the scientist Sir Isaac Newton a crazy and stupid speculator. Guess what? He lost his shirt in the South Sea Bubble in the 18th. century. Even more interesting: he was the equivalent of the Comptroller of the Currency at the time. Even MORE interesting: he exited, then watched others make a killing, AND RE-ENTRERED.
* Not much different from those solid Dutch burghers who lost their shirts and wooden clogs in the tulipmania frenze in the 17th. century. Or the Brits and Spaniards losing their shirts right now in overleveraged overbuilding. Do you know that until a few months ago a large percentage of Polish mortgages were denominated in Japanese yen (where interest rates were much lower)?
* This is NOT an American problem alone, much as the schadenfreude babble emanating from Europe and much of the rest of the world would have us believe. Example: based on U.S. GAAP (generally accepted accounting practices) the assets of Deutsche Bank — the largest, iconic bank in Germany, normally thought of as the most solid in Germany —- total $1.35 trillion, EXCEEDING TANGIBLE EQUITY BY OVER 55 TIMES, COMPARED WITH A LEVERAGE OF 32 TIMES FOR J.P.MORGAN.
* If you seriously want to look for the culprits responsible for this mess, here’s my list:
1. Greenspan, who kept interest rates too low for too long (near-negative in real terms), thereby disincentivizing savings and encouraging risk-taking. He should have read Freud in addition to Ayn Rand
2. Bill Clinton, who pushed Congress to accommodate borrowers who should never have been borrowing in the first place
3. A corrupt Congress, who benefit hugely from pushing that agenda
4. Wall Street scum
5. The partial dismantling of regulation and supervision Edith references.
* Bottom line: HOWEVER PAINFUL — AND IT UNDOUBTEDLY IS AND WILL BE —- IT IS JUST ONE MORE EPISODE IN THE ETERNAL SAGA OF PROGRESS —– WHAT THE ECONOMIST SCHUMPETER CALLED THE GENIUS FOR CREATIVE DESTRUCTION.
Trust me, new regulations will be circumvented at some point by a new generation of whizz-kids.
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