This is eye-opening...

Anyone have ideas how to resolve this?

no idea

:(

Here's one guy's solution, I guess. Everyone should default on their mortgages. I don't know if that's a good idea or not.

But I DO know that we have to stop propping the enormous companies that got us into this financial mess.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney29-2009nov29,0,3801270.story

I have a friend who is in a ton of debt not of his own making (wife shop-a-holic during a long divorce, he got stuck with tens and tens of thousands of dollars of her debt), he barely makes enough money to cover basic living expenses (recycles everything, buys nothing new, etc.), his interest rates keep going up, and he won't even try to renegotiate the loan because he thinks that that would be immoral. Who's the chump in this case?

Um, for the record, I believe in paying my bills, and I don't believe in living beyond my means, ever. But aren't impoverished people being taken for granted by the moral system of our society? We act moral, the companies we do business with act pathologically immoral. We need some balance. 

Boy, when did people turn into such babies? If you don't like the company don't do business with them!  Power to the people, vote with your feet!

You want the immoral government to provide the balance?  That is YOUR job. That is OUR job.

It's like having a lousy restaurant in town. No one eats there, it goes out of business and no one has to give up their freedom to have this occur.

That right there is the genius of this country. 

I think we're agreeing Elsa, but I'm not sure? Basically, I'm against the government bailout. It is up to people - individual people - to right the balance. And let companies, even big ones, go under. They'll have to die anyway, better they crumble sooner and quicker than longer and slower. Then we can rebuild. 

But... do you think people should honor their promises to their mortgage companies, even if they've lost their jobs, and their houses are worthless, and the mortgage companies are receiving huge subsidies from the government, which they are not passing on to the individuals they do business with? I really wonder what's right here...

On a happier economic note: The other day I walked by a restaurant to see that what had once been a little hole-in-the-wall falafel stand had rented out a big beautiful restaurant space next door. The recession has provided them with a good opportunity to expand, and it warmed my heart to see them go for it.

That video is disturbing and unnerving. I knew it was bad, but I'm a visual person, so just seeing that makes the reality of it much more visible and "in your face".

I wish I had some ideas, but I'm not super optimistic about that situation unfortunately.  

1.] Let the US dollar fall. 2.] Stop pegging the Chinese yuan to the US dollar. 

oh man!

Looks like I need to move to that one county in North Dakota that is below 1.9%.

Seriously, this graphic was sobering. 

I've read about the aspects during the French Revolution... same as our current Pluto placement?  What do you think about that?

I have to add this here as some comic relief

"WASHINGTON—In an effort to combat what organizers are calling "our current epidemic of complete and utter obliviousness," the American Foundation for Paying Attention to Things has declared December "National Awareness Month."

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/december_named_national_awareness

While I do think this is a big deal and it is an interesting graphic did anyone else notice that the purple covers an almost 3% range while the rest of the gradient up to that point is only 1%? It does make things a little misleading. Also with counties it doesn't necessarily reflect population densities very well, but in this case it probably suffices.

Back on topic I say just let things fail and sort it all out afterwards. Will it suck that way? Yeah. We'll just have to deal.

low unemployment= no people (or nearly none)

we need to create a new, profitable, useful, need driven industry.  that requires a lot of people power here, not in india or jamaica or bangladesh.

Another graph

CHART OF THE DAY: Depressed Americans Quit The Labor Force

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-persons-not-in-the-labor-force-2009-12

not sure how accurate the headline is...