How We Got Here

I was just doing a little research on Fannie Mae. Did you know that Franklin Raines, their former chief executive, has agreed to pay (along with two other executives) $31.4 million in a settlement into accounting irregularities. Now accounting irregularities means they were cooking the books so as to receive HUGE bonuses!!!!! If you want to know the straw which broke the camels back this is it
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/business/19fannie.html

I'm not saying that this the cause of the problem, that would be those of us who thought we could live better than kings of old and borrow for what we could not afford. We allowed our government to do the same. The current culture combined with the current wars reminds me of Johnson's famous "Guns and Butter," it just can't work!

I don't mind the economic contraction. I know it's hard, but this is life. It runs on cycles and when we mess with that cycle we do so at our own peril. Every once and a while you MUST prune the vines of the economy and rid the vineyard of unproductive vines. Credit is not and never has been the answer to success. Scripture has long warned against it and Shakespeare held it in contempt. Why do we think we're soooooo much smarter than G-d and those who have come before us. (On an aside when was the last great piece of literature written...you know...the kind of book that people enjoy reading 50 years later...and don't say 50 years ago!!!!! Was it "The Great Gadsby" or "1984"? )

I really think we Americans do need to live more modestly. We need to industrialize, mechanize, automate and innovate ouselves into selfsufficiency. I know I'm a bit of an isolationist, but I can't help but wonder if foreign pressure on Congress pushed them to defy the will of the people...or whether it was just good old fashioned contempt.