Recession...

[One_more_turn]

Those who whine about bank bailouts certainly want bailouts of their own, and that's what Obama and Democrats are for.

Given how many debtors and how few savers are in this country, whose interest is the government more likely to represent?

[snoopy369]

I wonder how hard it would be to re-institute Glass-Steagall in the current climate ... I know if they tried, and any of my representatives voted against it, I'd actively campaign against them myself in 2010, if they were still my representative then. I don't know how many others out there feel the same way as me, though.

Heck, I wish Congress had required, as a part of the bailout, a Ma Bell-like breakup of Citigroup/Chase/BoA/etc.'s retail banking arms, down to at least regional level if not state level (regional being somewhat dangerous in case, say, Steel or Automobile or ... industry were to collapse, killing the midwest/east/etc. and thus taking down a whole region's bank... though at least that would be cheaper to bail out). Do that and add in leveraging limits (12:1 or, better yet, 5:1) and I'd be okay with this bailout crap.

As it is, I certainly would vote for any candidate running on a "Hell No We Won't Bail Out" platform ... not that almost any in IL were doing so in 2008

[Colonâ„¢]

The latest reading of the economic climate in Belgium. The lowest level since '93 and that time was known as 'the crisis' around here. This is so frigging ugly.

[Colonâ„¢]

On the bright side, I opened a time deposit when inflation was peaking. A real return topping the 5.2% I'm nominally receiving sounds like a darn good investment at the moment.