preface
I have lurked for a long time, enjoying (and often not) the opinions, snark, editorial, ruminations and reporting that runs down the main column of the DK home page and detouring often to the user contributions on the right rail. Perhaps I should admit from the start I am not always, nor even often, the activist I should be. Neither am I a "party line" kind of person, at least as far as the denizens of DK might be said to be a party.
Moreover, I am a doubtful, skeptical sort of person, often given to sarcasm, much to my social and professional detriment. However, my doubts and skepticism are not really always a weakness (at least in my own opinion) and I have been accumulating a list of items where doubt and skepticism might actually be of use in raising the consciousness of some folk who seem to share with me goals for our country, our society, and our world. What captures my attention, most often, are GLARING INCONSISTENCIES between facts (and widely accepted theories, which I treat as facts) and - let me say - narrative, especially where that narrative leads to prescriptions, suggestions, or other forward looking statements of suggested objectives.
The elephants in the room.
I hesitate to choose "elephants" since the word and the notion carry certain political implications. However, since they are not 500 pound gorillas, elephants will have to suffice. If they indicate that boneheaded political notions from the other-evil side have permeated the illogical substata of our leftist discourse, so be it.
Today's Elephant in the Room
Comparisons to 2007
Just stop doing it. Do you remember the good times? Do you remember when there were stories about valets in Las Vegas who owned 6 residences and were sucking money out of them through refinancing? When appraisers and mortgage application reviewers were working overtime and still couldn't keep up (and when the appraisals were worthless and the "reviews" of mortgage applications were barely even formalities)?
Do you remember when the return on the annual return on the S&P 500 was 24%, 4%, 8% and 12%? When no investment could go wrong? Do you remember when the unemployment rate was 4.6% and wages were crazy in all kinds of fields, notably in construction trades and the economy was awash in money?
Finally, do you remember that NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE NORMAL! They were a product, primarily of the plutocratic Bush administration's push to deregulate, especially the financial sector and the abandonment of enforcing the remaining, emasculated regulations.
Follow me past the orange flourish for more...
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