i am afraid we have gotten away from the traditional values of thrift and savings. It used to be that we would take on debt in tough times to prime the pump and then pay it off in better times when we had surpluses. We did that throughout most of the 20th century. then sometime after Vietnam, our government decided that it wanted "guns and butter" because heck, and we started taking on debt. Well, debt not a bad thing if its used to increase productivity (build factories, improve transportation infrastructure, education etc.), but when its used to finance consumer consumption, it takes us down the path we are on today. i personally think that our elected officials are mostly the same (republican vs. Democrats). Republicans tend to borrow and spend and democrats tended to tax and spend, but either way, they all wanted "guns and butter" - they all wanted everything - because frankly, most people vote for someone who gives them something (war, entitlements, education - whatever you care about). And as the government started spending with reckless abandon, wall street was more than eager to make money on the borrowing and spending. I dont necessarily blame wall street and all their greed but our government for encouraging this reckless behaviour (mainly by keeping interest rates so low and creating agencies to lend money to people for homes). I agree with Jerry on the moral hazard we are creating as well as the amount of money its going to cost us and our kids. Whatever the politicians say, you may as well multiply by 10. They were wrong with what it costs us in Vietnam by an order of magnitude, they were wrong on Iraq and they will be wrong on how much it will cost us to bail out these reckless companies. Its also not fair to those that have pulled back and not taken the excessive risk that these bad companies took.
JMO
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