Comments on: "A world addicted to easy credit must go cold turkey "

By: Francois

Francois — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:53:00 +0000

"You can't take it back from the rich and powerful. They won't let you. If you try, they will conjure up a war, draft you , and have you blown up on some foreign shore."

Really?

Tell that to the elites whose heads fell under the couperet of the guillotine.

History is replete with examples of the rich taken to the woodshed and beaten silly.

This is very unlikely to happen here. But elections can be a very good non-violent proxy. Just look what happened after the Great Depression...common sense got back into vogue in DC.

It can happen again.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:27:00 +0000

Yves is right, you know.
When officials repeat reassuring words almost verbatim from speeches of Herbert Hoover, then I know we’re in trouble.
But we never learn; we have to hurt to understand; then we have to get by the best we can.

By: Lune

Lune — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Since everyone seems to be making analogies between bankers and addicts these days and about how we must go cold turkey, let me just add a wrinkle. In the actual world of drug addiction, it's not so simple. There are certain drugs from which you absolutely do not want to go "cold turkey" from, because the withdrawal can literally kill you.

For example, if an alcoholic comes into a detox center, they're admitted, monitored closely, and treated with drugs to bring them off slowly, because a cold turkey approach can cause delirium tremens and rapid death.

Other drugs, including such "serious" drugs as cocaine will not kill you if you go cold turkey (although the effects can be so bad that you often want to kill yourself, and indeed suicide attempts are one of the things detox centers must monitor for).

So, is withdrawal from the drug of easy credit more like alcohol withdrawal, which requires careful monitoring and intervention by the "doctor" during the process lest you end up with a dead patient, or more like cocaine withdrawal, where you ignore the cries of misery knowing that, as bad as it may seem, the quickest way to get through it is to continue cold turkey?

By: rexl

rexl — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:27:00 +0000

people don’t save money because it does not pay. perhaps they are not the idiots everyone assumes. housing was appreciating at 20% per year in some markets, while cd’s and savings paid 1-5% at most.
the key was to have cashed out in time. the profit difference was a no brainer.
if the powers that be want more savings then encourage it with real incentives, interest paid, not insipid moralizing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Wonderful piece! Financials caught in a mangle indeed!

Nineties to Noughties.

This writer can turn a phrase to look better than Marilyn's haunches.

By: Yves Smith

Yves Smith — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:31:00 +0000

I wouldn’t be so confident the wings of the rich won’t be clipped. The Great Depression wiped out quite a few formerly wealthy people, and income taxes became steeply progressive for the next two generations.

By: Expat

Expat — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:44:00 +0000

Aw, the Telegraph is so cute when it tries to be morallly upright and economically sound.

Gee, if everyone just stopped fighting and started loving, we would not have any more wars. Hunger? Let's some food to the poor. See how easy it is to fix problems.

Forget it. You can't take it back from the rich and powerful. They won't let you. If you try, they will conjure up a war, draft you , and have you blown up on some foreign shore.

Shocked and appalled that government and big business lies to us? Gee, really?