In Denial

Note that this is from C-SPAN, a cable channel "dedicated to airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming" (from Wikipedia). So this should be legit. And so I suggest EVERYONE watches it. This explains why the government pumped the first stimulus package into the banks rather than buying up their toxic assets.

It explains why lending is still so tight--banks are still reeling from the crisis caused by the sub-prime mortgages that never should have been approved and are still losing money, but at a much slower rate than before. Which is why the second stimulus package is in the works, and why they're working so hard to get it passed--the longer the slump goes on, the greater the chance another large company will fail, creating another run on the banks.

Seriously, though. Holy fuck.

I suppose the bright side of this is that if the government doesn't limit executive pay that companies most likely will, if only to keep themselves afloat. And it will be a long time, even if there aren't laws made against it, before banks start allowing large amounts of sub-prime mortgages again. (AKA, making risky loans to people who will more likely not be able to keep up with the payments.)

Of course, all of that probably could have been avoided if it was required for the average person to take a couple of economy classes, so that families could have better understood what was and wasn't within their means. Maybe they should make that a requirement to graduate both high school AND college? I'm certainly going to be buying a few economy books or taking a class or two in the near future, because even though I took one recently, I still need to read more advanced material....