Comments from Registered Members

(Register or log in to make your comment.)

Mark Davis 2008-10-02

PatM is correct. Fractional-reserve banking is the root cause of the boom-bust cycle. Capitalism is based on savings that is invested, not credit-money created out of thin air. Sustainable economic growth can only be based on real savings. Fraudulent bankers with accounting tricks and government lackeys seeking to profit from this scam create artificial booms with credit-money and are not capitalists. Study Austrian Economics for a better understanding of what is happening.

hal2222222 2008-10-01

Leaders humbly admit they are lost. But if the people lead the leaders will follow. (-?) Remembering to share and give is key but in a paradigm shift we must all find our own way. Steer this economic ship to the pages of history and focus how government can fulfill it's commitment in creating more perfect unions and promote liberty and justice via fair trade and truly free markets. Competition is a side bet we've all been gambling on in the real game of life. Educate yourself and others.

PatM 2008-09-30

Part II - This is how markets "bubble". Speculators borrow money to buy stock (buying on margin) which creates more "money" in the systema and allows the speculator to pay higher prices than a "true" free market with a stable money supply would be able to pay. The next speculator borrows even more (inflating the money supply even more) and buys the first speculator's stock. This ever rising price is fueled by credit created out of thin air by banks. When speculators are no longer willing to borrow to buy stock/real estate/energy the bubble bursts and vast amounts of this bank credit simply disappears into thin air (which is all that credit is). Remake the system along the lines of the 1930s "100% Reserve" plan from the Chicago School of Economics (before Uncle Milty's corruption of it) that Roosevelt only partially implemented and then you'll see capitalism can actually work.

PatM 2008-09-30

The fundamental problem is allowing deposit taking institutions (banks) to make loans. People believe that banks loan deposits but this is not true. Banks CREATE deposits out of nothing which they then loan out - creating money out of thin air. The scam only works because we don't think of what happens to that bank cheque after we hand it over to the people we are buying from. Person A deposits $1000 with the bank. Person B "borrows" $1000 from the bank and buys something. Person C gets the cheque then deposits it in the bank. Magically, both person A and person C have $1000 deposits when only $1000 actually exists. Even worse, AFter Person A's deposit the bank sheet showed $1000 deposit with no loan = $1000 in excess reserves. That means the bank has $1000 to loan. After Person C makes their deposit, the sheet says $2000 in deposits with $1000 in loans = $1000 in excess reserves so the bank can "lend" the money again, and again, and again.

beaneroni 2008-09-29

To me Senator Byron Dorgan's comment made the most sense: "I wish that I knew of someone who knew exactly what we should do and what would work." To my mind, there IS someone who knows what we should do, and what would work. It is called sharing, and the person advocating it is Maitreya, the world teacher for all humanity. He says that only by sharing will we create true justice, and only with true justice will we be able to have real peace. Plans already exist, at the UN, to implement a program of sharing on a global scale. Read more here: www.share-international.org

pkmielke 2008-09-29

To those history challenged individuals below, the free market was tried in most ways throughout the 19th century. It was found wanting in extremis (booms and busts every decade, with sharp banking crises/collapses). Maybe it is finally time to get beyond the market in a new way!

Tommy Roberts 2008-09-29

There was only one woman and zero people of color in this video. Why is our country's future always decided by groups of old white men?

pwmackay 2008-09-29

It's hard to believe that these people are asking how this happened when it's blatantly obvious the same small but controlling group of business people/families and politicians (and their families) are one and the same! For nearly 100 years, this same group (each familial generation) has contrived to gain the control they now have, including creating each crisis and war to suck in ever more money as time passes. This is merely the culmination and maybe the final act in their pursuit....and what then?...the Bush Dictatorship and military control to keep the starving masses in place? This farce is a repeat of Germany in the 1930's that led to WWII!

drcce2001 2008-09-29

Bush entered office a "social conservative and ended as a conservative socialist". Very good! Nationalise the whole of the finance and banking without compensation. Introduce a steeply progressive income tax. McSame and O'Same have no answers. Build a Labor Party. The bosses have two parties--the workers have none.

PietHeyn 2008-09-29

The free market ended when Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal State Reserve act.

georgeb.martin 2008-09-29

I agree with Mark Davis, we have not truly had a free market. The government has been controlling the market for years. The Fed is a major problem.

Mark Davis 2008-09-29

The free-market ended in the United States over 100 years ago. The Republican rhetoric about free-markets is a smokescreen for National Socialism. The United States has been a socialist economic system since Wilson. The New Deal consolidated and expanded socialism. If you want to end the downward spiral caused by socialism then a return to real free-markets is the only answer. This starts with eliminating the Federal Reserve banking cartel (whom are crying in this video report) and returning to free-market money and free-market banking.