Iceland 1st bankrupt nation

[rusalka]

Please tell me this is not the beginning of a 2nd Great depression......

One user on Stumbleupon posted this and it's so disturbing

Reasons the next depression will be worse:
1. There are several billion more people on planet earth competing for resources.
2. In the 1930s people still knew how to be self-sufficient.
3. In the 1930s communities were stronger and more mutually supportive. Local shopkeepers would cut their neighbours some slack. Will Walmart let you run up a tab?
4. In the 1930s the dollar was not the reserve currency so the US didn't have to deal with the crunch ensuing from the loss of that privileged status.
5. In the 1930s the US still had a manufacturing industry. During the Great Depression the countries that fared best and recovered the quickest were the most self-sufficient ones.
6. Where the Great Depression had the dust bowl we have global climate change.
7. In the 30s the US wasn't initiating major military misadventures all over the world and wasn't spending more than the rest of the world put together on its military.
8. There wasn't an oil crisis. Update: The estimable Sharkat has added some flesh to my bare bones list - I was hoping somebody would! It is quite a difficult exercise to try and project the ways a 21st century depression will affect us, and the ways the points listed act to exacerbate each other. Thanks Sharkat. More detail at his pages. SHARKAT's modest addition to the list above relates to points #5 and #8. In the 1930s the majority of the USA's industrial resources were still available. Indeed, the US was the world's leading exporter of oil for decades. In the 1930s US production was only 2-3 million barrels/day and the peak of ~9.5 mbbl/day was not reached until the early 70s. US production has declined ever since and imports have risen fairly steadily.

[copper]

I seen all this coming down the railroad tracks years ago. You can't ship all the good jobs out of the country and replace them with crappy service jobs. Then give everyone unlimited credit to allow to keep their lifestyle they are accustomed to living. Eventually the wolves will be at the door.

[missionhillandy]

Originally Posted by copper

I seen all this coming down the railroad tracks years ago. You can't ship all the good jobs out of the country and replace them with crappy service jobs. Then give everyone unlimited credit to allow to keep their lifestyle they are accustomed to living. Eventually the wolves will be at the door.

I don't get how they expected this to succeed.

[dsf23j9j2dlm]

I still can't figure out what exactly caused this financial crisis since there's so much finger pointing going on between Democrats and Republicans.

Is it because of deregulation, or because the Clinton administration pressured banks to give out loans to people who couldn't pay them back? Does anyone know for sure who's to blame?

[rusalka]

Originally Posted by mrdrinkinglysol

I still can't figure out what exactly caused this financial crisis since there's so much finger pointing going on between Democrats and Republicans.

Is it because of deregulation, or because the Clinton administration pressured banks to give out loans to people who couldn't pay them back? Does anyone know for sure who's to blame?

I'm in the dark about this too...

[Nihlanth]

Where is the mention of Iceland in the article? Am I blind? I thought Iceland was pretty well off.

[coldmorning]

Originally Posted by mrdrinkinglysol

I still can't figure out what exactly caused this financial crisis since there's so much finger pointing going on between Democrats and Republicans.

Is it because of deregulation, or because the Clinton administration pressured banks to give out loans to people who couldn't pay them back? Does anyone know for sure who's to blame?

Yes, I know for sure. I also know I sound like a know it all and people here are probably tired of hearing me rant about it. But I did say on this forum that the credit crunch would be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and I said this well before the first bank failed. Now everyone is saying it.

But just days before the 700 billion bailout, Mccain said the economy was in great shape. Now he's trying to say that Freddie and Fannie are at fault for the crisis. If he was that clueless about the financial crisis, I don't know why we should suddenly start listening to him.

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the CRA are all tenuous attempts to link Obama to the financial crisis. The loans that apply here make up a negligible fraction of the loans that are causing the financial crisis. And the root problem is not the loans themselves but rather how they ended up in these financial institutions that our economy depends on and can't be allowed to fail. This has nothing to do with CRA and everything to do with deregulation. If it were simply a matter of lenders making bad loans for overpriced homes to high risk borrowers.... well then that would be a problem between the lender and borrower. But how did this become a problem for everyone else? That's because of deregulation.

Anyway, I won't go on about this anymore on this forum.

[UltraShy]

Originally Posted by copper

You can't ship all the good jobs out of the country and replace them with crappy service jobs.

Steve, don't you work in social service/mental health which would be a service industry? As for "crappy" jobs, didn't you tell how how you dad basically destroyed his body by the rigors of working on an assembly line for decades? Did your dad have what you deem a good job that physically destroyed him?

[rusalka]

Originally Posted by Nihlanth

Where is the mention of Iceland in the article? Am I blind? I thought Iceland was pretty well off.

I saw it on the news, but here is a link to a Forbes article: Iceland teeters on bankruptcy

[rusalka]

Originally Posted by coldmorning

Yes, I know for sure. I also know I sound like a know it all and people here are probably tired of hearing me rant about it. But I did say on this forum that the credit crunch would be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and I said this well before the first bank failed. Now everyone is saying it.

But just days before the 700 billion bailout, Mccain said the economy was in great shape. Now he's trying to say that Freddie and Fannie are at fault for the crisis. If he was that clueless about the financial crisis, I don't know why we should suddenly start listening to him.

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the CRA are all tenuous attempts to link Obama to the financial crisis. The loans that apply here make up a negligible fraction of the loans that are causing the financial crisis. And the root problem is not the loans themselves but rather how they ended up in these financial institutions that our economy depends on and can't be allowed to fail. This has nothing to do with CRA and everything to do with deregulation. If it were simply a matter of lenders making bad loans for overpriced homes to high risk borrowers.... well then that would be a problem between the lender and borrower. But how did this become a problem for everyone else? That's because of deregulation.

Anyway, I won't go on about this anymore on this forum.

#&*@, what do we do? Should I still pursue an education or should I just settle for a safe accountant job?

[coldmorning]

Originally Posted by rusalka

#&*@, what do we do? Should I still pursue an education or should I just settle for a safe accountant job?

I'm not saying it will be another depression... just that this crisis is the worst since. And I don't see how it can be fixed soon. Whether you choose to go to school or work shouldn't be based on this crisis. But I would avoid working for a company that regularly uses debt for their operations.

[Bon]

Originally Posted by coldmorning

I'm not saying it will be another depression... just that this crisis is the worst since. And I don't see how it can be fixed soon. Whether you choose to go to school or work shouldn't be based on this crisis. But I would avoid working for a company that regularly uses debt for their operations.

I agree.

However, if things don't turn around, I do believe we'll be in trouble. This bailout is a temp fix.
I can see concrete inflation, I'm not talking a few cents here and there.

As most Americans, I think we have a false sense of security "It won't happen to us."

[WineKitty]

Originally Posted by mrdrinkinglysol

I still can't figure out what exactly caused this financial crisis since there's so much finger pointing going on between Democrats and Republicans.

Is it because of deregulation, or because the Clinton administration pressured banks to give out loans to people who couldn't pay them back? Does anyone know for sure who's to blame?

Yes, of course Clinton. Surely no one could have changed the course of anything since the Clinton administration....being that he has been out of office for eight years.

There is plenty of blame to go around, I have seen articles that want to blame Jimmy Carter for this mess.

Its how do we fix the mess that is more important.

[shyvr6]

I wonder who is going to buy it?

[dsf23j9j2dlm]

Originally Posted by Penny

Its how do we fix the mess that is more important.

True, but they say those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I think it's vitally important we figure out what's at the root of this so we can prevent it from happening again.

Then again, maybe it's simply human greed that caused this, in which case there's not much we can do to prevent a similar situation from recurring in the future.

[lurkbc]

it appears that russia will bail out iceland

iceland is a still a member of nato, the developments will be interesting.

[WineKitty]

Originally Posted by mrdrinkinglysol

Then again, maybe it's simply human greed that caused this, in which case there's not much we can do to prevent a similar situation from recurring in the future.

Exactly. I think greed is at the root of all this.

[free thinker]

Originally Posted by rusalka

I saw it on the news, but here is a link to a Forbes article: Iceland teeters on bankruptcy

For those who would like an explanation by video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZA_f12t0QE

[SadRosesAreBeautiful]

Originally Posted by missionhillandy

I don't get how they expected this to succeed.

It was all sheer greed, and now everyone's paying the price except the multi-million dollar CEOs of course.

[millenniumman75]

Originally Posted by Penny

Exactly. I think greed is at the root of all this.

It is a bipartisan problem - a cultural problem. If people think they can live like the people they see on TV while having a minimum-wage job, it's not happening.
As I have noticed, a lot of the CEOs and Government people involved are Baby Boomers. Clinton and Bush 43 are as well. Their mentality was different than the generation before them (who actually live in the Depression - McCain was a child so he would likely remember something). Baby Boomers are a bit narcissistic and power/money/status driven. The biggest shock to come is when they finally realize that there aren't enough of us (their children) to help them in their old age.

Now, the people who lived during the Depression - they are THE generation that made it through (like my grandparents, who are probably looking down on us in disappointment).