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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Oct 28, 2011 - 04:21pm PT
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Dewish Bag, the Louse that Bored.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Oct 28, 2011 - 05:50pm PT
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Another great moment in GOP history
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 06:03pm PT
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Alan Greenspan virtually single-handedely busted the dot com era with rampant fear mongering. I never understood the cult of personality surrounding that gnome. I wonder how much money he made off it?
This has to be one of the most naive things I have ever read.
Yes. Without that hater Greenspan Pets.com would be worth more than Walmart today!
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 06:07pm PT
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It is applied American capitalism.
There is no single 'Capitalism', there is an infinity of Capitalisms. Capitalism is ductile and takes the form of the vessel in which it is incarnated in.
Nice try, Lovesgas. But no, government choosing winners, channeling public money into failing companies is NOT capitalism, by any definition.
Capitalism requires failure just as it requires success.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 06:10pm PT
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There was one wimpy looking guy in Joshua Tree today, on Hwy 62 by Natural Sisters cafe, holding a sign saying "we are the 99%".
Maybe you guys can help him if you come out for the weekend. I will think of you while I go climbing.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Oct 28, 2011 - 07:35pm PT
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I have 30 stiches in my foot
Jesus Warbler, what happened?!
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 07:37pm PT
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Kevin,
I am a software engineer with a scientific background but I usually work in Finance, currently for a large bank. I am sure most on here would characterize me as a member of the 1% based on my posts, but I am just a climber trying to support my habit (climbing, not crack).
I hope your recovery goes better than ours has gone in the last 3 years.
Sincerely, Paul Parker
[edit] I should also note that I don't have any special loyalty to my (or any) bank. I didn't agree with the bailouts, I would rather have lost my job than allow the government to socialize losses in this way.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 07:45pm PT
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You've lost it. Bubbles occur when less sophisticated investors and momentum market players push the valuations of an asset class beyond a point of reasonable ROI. The media plays it on the way up and down, but does not cause it.
This is correct, but there is more to it. Bubbles can occur anywhere, but cheap credit and printed money virtually guarantee them. Remember when QE2 was announced by Bernanke? Investors flooded into oil, gold, wheat, etc. because they saw inflation. They were correct, but less savvy investors just saw rising prices and jumped on the bandwagon. This drove prices beyond ROI.
Also true for the real estate bubble - Bernanke pushing interest rates to 1% when Fannie/Freddie insured MBSs were paying 7% created the updraft that fed on itself until there was no more fuel to burn, and then it imploded.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 07:48pm PT
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My Dad retired a fews years ago as a high-level exec of Bank of America Asian operations. Prolly a 1%er.
Keep in mind he's the son of Italian migrants (legal, Ellis Island). His Dad joined the US Navy as an engineer, served in Korea, and died after I was born.
My Dad, after graduating San Jose State with a Busines degree went to work as a teller for Wells Fargo Bank. Work his way up, joined BofA, and was asked to go overseas to help Euro operations. He did.
He did that all the way up the ladder of management while managing his family in different countries.
I think he retired as VP of Asian Operations. He busted his ass the whole way, all the way. Honest work. He even took down a colleague for corruption while he was an auditor for a while.
He's a very honest, ethical man. He earned every f*#king penny he made!
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 07:58pm PT
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Thanks for sharing Bluering, I like inspirational stories like that.
I just spoke to a guy the other day who is now in a Ph.D. program in the U.S. but was once a 15 year old child soldier in Congo.
I am even very cynical about the opportunities in this country now days, but he saw plenty.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 08:39pm PT
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They are far and I mean FAR more tolerant than their parents (us, lol). They grew up in the rainbow world and it doesn't really matter whether you accept it or not.
Define 'more tolerant', and expain how that is more helpful than regressive in terms of national unity and identity.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 08:45pm PT
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They are far and I mean FAR more tolerant than their parents (us, lol). They grew up in the rainbow world and it doesn't really matter whether you accept it or not.
Much more willing to partner, to build consensus and work as a team, than the generation of their parents.
Yall should be proud of them and share my feelings that the future is bright and the kids are all right.
Dingus, I agree that kids these days are more tolerant and that is a great thing. However I am dismayed by the sense of entitlement that people of all ages show in the U.S. have right now. 63 percent of all federal spending this year will consist of checks to individuals for which the government receives no services, up from 46 percent in 1975 and 18 percent in 1940. When someone who is not making payments on his house is foreclosed on, he trashes the place, and feels justified because the bank is stealing "his" house - a house he has NEVER had any equity in.
We complain and lash out at the rich because our incomes have not risen appreciably in the last 20 years. But why do we think we deserve incomes 10 times greater than the Chinese, for doing the same work? We need to become more competitive. This will not happen by vilifying the wealthy, they will leave and take their wealth with them.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Oct 28, 2011 - 09:05pm PT
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I am a software engineer with a scientific background but I usually work in Finance, currently for a large bank.
Which, given government bailouts and support for banks, kind of makes you a government employee, doesn't it?
The rumour that Kevin hurt his foot kicking himself at the stupidity of right-wingers here is completely untrue.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 09:23pm PT
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Which, given government bailouts and support for banks, kind of makes you a government employee, doesn't it?
The rumour that Kevin hurt his foot kicking himself at the stupidity of right-wingers here is completely untrue.
We were forced to take money and paid it back at the first opportunity with interest, so no.
I would have no qualms if I did work for the Government, Government has it's place. But it's place should not be EVERYWHERE, and it should not suck up half of the economy.
As (I believe) Skip said, it needs to be put back in it's constitutional box.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 09:27pm PT
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Crack, what did you specialize in for your PhD
Nonlinear inverse theory.
Really.
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CrackAddict
Trad climber
Canoga Park, CA
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Oct 28, 2011 - 09:29pm PT
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Isn't the Defense budget about half the economy?
Now there's a perfect place to make some BIG cuts.
Absolutely. Spending $1 Million a year to have a single foot on the ground (well, 2 feet) in some God forsaken land does not seem like money well spent to me.
Time to bring em home.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Oct 29, 2011 - 02:05pm PT
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It's time to light the Big Wooden Man on fire.
Then go home.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Oct 29, 2011 - 02:38pm PT
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Tom C THANX for that!
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