362 Powerpoint.
Getting a book ready for print is very frustrating. I tried to plan ahead for making a book, but I just guessed at a lot of stuff. I guessed poorly a few times…
Anyway, let’s talk about the financial crisis for a second. Now I don’t know how to fix things, or who’s at fault. All I know is history, and I have a few questions:
If panic is what causes the stock market to crash then isn’t the constant deluge of doom-saying coming from our 24 hour newsbeasts making things worse?
Shouldn’t a smart person, that people trust, be telling the masses that everything is going to be okay?
Who would that person be?
Could it be Tom Hanks?
Could it be Optimus Prime?
Readers, you’ve proven to me, time and again, that you are very knowledgeable. Please explain these things to me in a way that a simple artist can understand.
Stumble it!
October 10th, 2008 at 10:05 am
FIRST!
I mean…in an optimum world the brilliant and charismatic President of the United States of America would tell the plebes that their bread and circuses were going to continue.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Even though there are very simple things that people should do in order to keep something from happening, we don’t do it.
We never do.
Half of the worlds problems could be solved if people would just bite the bullet and do the right thing instead of thinking only about themselves. If you will watch the news more because you are concerned about things being bad then they will keep telling you things are bad so you will keep watching to see just how bad it gets. I personlly don’t give a hoot about it because I know its going to blow over just like terroroists, and y2k, and west nile virus, and avian flew, and mad cow disease, and killer bees, and rabbies, and ADHD, and yadda yadda yadda.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
<3 Tom Hanks. He was Woody in the Toy Storys.
Because I love to explain things… credit is pretty much maybe money. Like, people give you stuff for free. Because you maybe will pay them back. When you do, things go okay. When you don’t, there is usually jail or something.
Lots of banks gave out lots of credit to people they probably shouldn’t have. And they did it in a way that made it very hard for the people to pay back with real money. This meant the banks had lots of maybe money that they used like real money. But then the people with credit didn’t have any real money. Which meant the banks didn’t, either.
And the problem with banks is, if they have no real money, they fall down go boom.
And when banks fall down go boom, we have less money, maybe and real, because credit is a big part of why it’s good to have banks in the first place. Less money is a bad thing, because no money makes you poor. And when lots of people are poor, or getting not as rich as they used to be, less things are bought and we need less people to make things. So more people get even poorer.
I think… I’m pretty rusty on the whole shebang myself. I got a passing grade on my AP Macro Economics test…
Wow, i should post this on my livejournal.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Well, all I know is that the last major market crash was in the 1920’s. Around the same time as……..GASP! King Kong! DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
October 10th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Yunno, if you’re gonna associate the crash with something random from the era..you could say, point to the lack of a good world war in the ’20s. Nothing helps the industrial economy like a them or us, all or nothing war.
Sorry, just got done watching Starship Troopers.
October 10th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Accually the “Great Depression” started earlyer with the farmers. 1917 i think. Because more and more people were moving to the cities less people were farming. Also, in the mid-west there was something called the dust bowl, everything was dry and gross and nothing grew.
No Food + No ‘real’ Money = Great Depression. Ta Da.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I comment on the second to last comic I need to read about a book, and the latest newspost is about books. I’m a genius.
Also, we need to be told things will be okay by Ace Ventura. That, or The Doctor. Who better than The Doctor. Preferably the 10th, beacuse he’s so great at being great.
With all his oobly-googly timey-wimey stuff.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Yeah…all the responses I’ve read so far about why the market’s crashing and we’re all gonna die have been accurate enough to give you a good idea. My husband’s been explaining more of the details to me, and these guys have the basic concepts right. Banks gave “high risk” loans to people they shouldn’t have (mostly so those people could buy houses they couldn’t afford), and then, when those people couldn’t pay them back, they were screwed.
My husband also informed me yesterday that the board or CEOs or whoever’s in charge of one of the bail-out-banks just went on some multi-thousand dollar vacation w/ the money the gov. gave their COMPANY (not them), and then the gov. gave them MORE money. Frankly, it stinks of corrupt politicians.
Now, I’m not doing this to elicit votes for either candidate (since I’m not voting for either), but this set of videos (at the top of the first link) explains some about the current economic situation, if you care to watch it.
http://www.foxnews.com/hannitysamerica/
http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21166519/planting_seeds_of_disaster.htm?q=ACORN
Google ACORN, too.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:31 am
If you want to read an interesting article go here……
http://businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2008/GreatDepression/GreatDepression_execsum.asp………
It is about how the news media really fans the flames, contributing greatly, in my opinion to the problems we are having.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:40 am
You’re right. Slow new year. They’re not blowing it out of proportion, but the economy is only still working because people think it is. Now that people think it’s not they’re not spending as much which is screwing everything up.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Tom Hanks would totally put people at ease. Or get criticized to death. Whichever comes first.
Seriously, though, it’s like this. I’m in an economics class right now so I hope that makes me qualified to explain this base don what I’ve learned. We are a country that spends money it doesn’t have on things it can’t afford. Ergo, Capitol Hill decides that we should rectify the situation by spending more money we don’t have on more things we can’t afford, e.g the financial sector.
Yes, the short-sighted media is largely to blame, as are a bunch of politicians who pretend to know things about economics and history that they clearly don’t- or else we might not be in this mess. The Tom Hanks/Optimus Prime idea was good; frankly, it would probably be good if they got voted into office, though that would probably have to wait. I’m for Obama, myself, and neither Hanks nor Prime are currently running, UNFORTUNATELY. The bailout ideas are all pretty bad, though, since the economy is like a living organism that is designed to undergo change and fluctuation. It can recover from injuries and, like a healthy immune system, does better when it’s allowed to beat things by itself than when it’s replaced by medicines and languishes from lack of use. Firms and industries that are too weak to support themselves should die off, in accordance with natural selection, leaving the better ones to replace it. It’s like paradigm shifts in science: the victorious viewpoint (or firm/industry) is always better. Forcing stability can lead to disastrous results (thank you, Law of Unintended Consequences).
Honestly, though, it’s a little too late. The actually good economists have seen this coming for a while and didn’t hesitate to warn us, though the people in their foolishness were quick to silence them with shouts of “Chicken Little says the sky is falling!” Now, it seems that we’re headed to a place as bad as- if not worse than- the great Depression. It could very well be worse because in the Depression, we were the largest creditor nation in the world. Nobody ever owned a country more money than the world owed us then. Now, we’re the largest debtor nation; we owe everyone else money because of our enormous trade deficit.
People will be hoarding money and burying it in coffee cans in their back yards, a la the first great Depression, if things continue on their present course. I myself will be hoarding MREs (Meal Ready to Eat, which is basicially military rations that keep forever), weapons and ammo (because, if things get as bad as they could, civil unrest/violence/anarchy and even foreign invasion might occur), and portable water filters, like those you take camping. That’s because, if the shit really hits the fan and there’s no money left, the first thing to go before the angry mobs take to the streets will be the utilities. Googbye water, gas, and electricity. Also, out of the simple fact that we owe them everything and not out of any poltical dislike of the country (I’m a Communist apologist sometimes), China might actually see fit to invade us, serving out the international role of the repo man. Here’s hoping none of that happens and it probably won’t get THAT bad, though it’s always a good idea to have someone prepared for it, like me. Yeah, me vs. the rest of the world. I’m going to die…
So, yeah, there’s the story in a nutshell. But I’m just a junior in high school. Heh, what do I know?
October 11th, 2008 at 8:20 am
While Gunstar2 does make a lot of really good points, i just want to reiterate, Y2K, never happened, Killer Bees, haven’t seen them, Avian flu, we all seem to be fine. There always seems to be something threatening our very lives all the time and we always seem to come out of it ok. Besides all that people are to fat and lazy to riot.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Pooped ‘em…
October 12th, 2008 at 5:49 am
I was once talking to my grandfather when he inquired of me “What makes the world turn, boy?”
To which I promptly and respectfully replied “Money, sir!”
To which he promptly replied back “Not at all, it’s BULL-SHIT”
Greed, combined with stupidity, is a rather powerful force on a national or world stage. As some have mentioned bank loaners have been giving loans to people who obviously can’t pay it. Why does an 80-year old women need a 100k loan to be paid over 40 years? Did anyone think that was really going to happen?
Then we have people who build their little empires with no thought to the consequences. They treat our money like their money. While I am not nearly as vehement over the matter I must admit the author of “Akematsu” has a real good grasp on the general idea.
I’d actually be fine with the bailout idea if it wasn’t for the CEOs and such of these companies coming away from this with THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS. WTF, right? Honestly they have been criminally negligent and should be tried for economic crimes.
I rather liked an idea I heard on the radio. Instead of the bailout plan the government should pay everyone who is a citizen $50. Fifty dollars. This would be with the requirement that it would be used to pay off debt owed to these companies.
This way we would Reduce Debt, the companies would not be Bankrupt, and everything is fine. The government is still paying it, just changes who it goes to.
I rather think that’s a better plan.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Tom Hanks… WAS NOT WOODY IN TOY STORY! It was Tim Allen… -_-
Secondly. Panic is the cause of a stock market crash. It happened to Washington Mutual. People freaked out, and pulled all of they’re money out. It happened to a lot of banks, but more so to Washington Financial.
But then again, the news is broadcasting panic! Because that’s what they’re good at. It makes people watch TV. Which gives them ratings. Which brings in Ad Agencies which generates income. People are naturally drawn to bad things. Which is why they watch Soap Operas. A disaster gets live coverage, while a Nation Wide Fundraiser gets a 3 minute spot.
Crave: Tim Allen was Buzz Lightyear. Tom Hanks was Woody.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I think if we need someone people could trust to not cause panic of bad news it would have to be Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. Just standing there directing people to safety while he was stepping on Tom Hanks Woody toon and telling people you must step over others to get to safety. Because directing traffic of panic people is like scaring sheep into a box yard fence bin, not that hard. That is all.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Wait… Like Carol is one to talk. She’s not exactly a feather herself
October 17th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Carol needs to calm the heck down honestly.
November 11th, 2008 at 10:21 am
The Doctor……..the newest one((Whatever number he is)) would be the best to tell us the truth.
Also a war dosn’t necesserily help an econimy sometimes it makes it worse like……..now. The whole reason we had a boom after both WWs is because we SOLD the weapons, food, medical and other things to the people fighting. We only joined the last part and we finished it quickly.