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Great post, GD, and I agree. Not only do I agree, but I've seen that scenario played out at a local level and it wasn't pretty. (The place where Eric used to work). It's all about greed, instant gratification for the privileged few, and damn the costs to anyone else. Economies are constantly being manipulated by special interests- look at OPEC. There is no shortage, no excuse for the marked increase in crude oil excepting profit motive. They'll do it as long as they can get away with it, and never mind that it is leading to massive food shortages and privation for many of the world's people. I'm all for getting a good return in business, but this is something different. It's a bit sinister, the timing is very suspicious, and one can't help but wonder wtf the cartel is trying to pull off. Yet Bush would have you believe that these people (excepting Venezuela) are our friends. No, they are not- they are business people manipulating the world economy into a very precarious state and I think we need to do what we can to counteract that. If we just sit back and let the fire burn, we will burn as well.
Lots of people who have been very careful with their money are in trouble now, not just the high rolling speculators. We had credit controls in place to prevent usurious and unscrupulous lending practices from occurring, but that all went to hell with this administration. Same goes for the energy deregulation- look how well that turned out. Anyone remember the savings and loan fiasco? The list goes on and on. Things that are regulated are often that way because of past abuses with catastrophic consequences- many of our banking rules stem from the Great Depression era, and with good reason.
Oh, and to get back on topic.....We got our 'rebate' today. It went to bills.
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