How I knew the financial system would implode:
Congress passed the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, a law designed to punish regular people by making it harder for them to discharge debts they had run up during the credit bubble.
When this Act passed, I started moving my life savings over into safer investments. I started stocking a bit of cash at home every month. I tightened my belt. I prepared to lose my job. I knew the game was over. And pretty soon it was.
Congress passed this law because lobbyists knew that the whole thing was going to go belly up and they wanted to shift their risk back on to borrowers.
And Congress basically just does whatever lobbyists tell them to do. In fact, the bill passed by margins that were unusually large for the Bush era. Democratic politicians threw themselves at this bill and used it as an opportunity to denounce working Americans for profligacy.
So, I learned that government action is a good indicator not just of the present situation -- but of what government expects to be happening in the future. The Bankruptcy Act passed because government -- or at least their masters -- expected the economy to collapse.
So I read this today:
Twitter Ordered to Yield Data in WikiLeaks Case.
Hoo boy.
So, what's next for us? This has major implications for electronic privacy and the freedom of speech. What does the government see the world looking like in five years' time where this sort of clampdown on the press -- yes, WikiLeaks is the press -- will be required?