Some people have been shouting it from the roof tops for years. Nobody wanted to listen.
You know what's crazy...there are so many opinions on the matter, that there was never a clear idea of why anyone should believe a crash was coming or not coming.
Thing is, there is probably truth in it all.
I for one had it made clear to me yesterday by a History professor that this is not new...it has been happening cyclically since the American revolution.
He is saying that Wall Street has basically been one Ponzi scheme after another to put money in the hands of some wealthy people at the expence of common people investing and being taxed for what basically amounts to as social welfare for corporations. (well that last part applies to the age of bailouts...which are not entirely new...evidentally, but I put in this aside because they don't date back as far as the revolution.)
When the scheme goes under...the investment bubble collapses.
This happened with railroads in the 1890's. JP Morgan came up with a scheme to make money...became rich.
Later the Nicaragua canal; was scheduled to be built.
JP Morgan faked a nationalist uprising of "Panamanians" against Columbia...facilitated a international treaty signing and created the nation of Panama. There were no Panamanians present at the signing.
He took this momentum and arbitrated construction for the canal to be moved to new nation of Panama.
Wall Street exploded with investment.
One example of why...Nicaragua would have been a level canal...Panama needed heavy industry to create very expensive locks to make the canal work...
There was also a Scottish guy who earlier on faked the existence of a country so he could get people to invest in his scheme...he made bank.
After each of these schemes ended, there was a subsequent crash.
I learned all this last night...but one thing I disagree withthe professor on was his insiunuation that this is not any different from any of the other recessions.
I think it is.
I think the fed has been building this balloon...this ponzi pyramid scheme for longer than any other time in history...and I think this time it will fall REALLY hard.
Also...I think the decline of resources because of over population...AKA the malthusian crisis may be having a hand in the mix this time around.
But yeah, greed and capitalism certainly is exacerbating those issues, if those are part of the issues.
Basically what I am saying is with a more communal system...we could probably sustain 8 billion people for damn near eternity...rather than the 6 billion that may not survive 2012 if we don't fundamentally change some shit soon.
Also, I am not a communist.
I would vastly prefer 1 billion people to live free than 6 billion live under oppression...but what are we gpoign to do with all those extra people?
Ok, I am done ranting.
I am ready for the fall.
I had some problems before,,and I'll have some after.
But I'll still be the same person.
I never cared about finance or appearances or status.
I will rejoice if it gets to the point that people no longer put on fronts to seem a certain way or avoid associating with people that are "beneath" them.
I will rejoice if we are all forced to come together.