Strange Days Indeed

You can't possibly blame anyone if they fail to grasp this recession.

We have never lived in one. Not in my lifetime for sure. There were the bubbles of course, a savings and loan crisis, stagflation in the 1970's, a dot com bust, and otherwise.

This feels different to me. It as if what was once old, is indeed old and never to be new again.

Deregulation was sheer folly. Alan Greenspan was no genius. Wall Street will cease to exist as it once was.

I notice that people seem dumbstruck by the course of events. They appear as stale, glazed donuts. The endless optimism of recent days seems forever ago. It has all come to an end. For now at least.

I will argue that unbridled zeal for free market capitalism has seen its last days.

There are a variety of reasons to support this claim. First and foremost, I believe (and have stated for quite some time) that the scope and scale of this situation is far worse than people tend to believe. Beyond that, I am curious as to where future growth lies. We are all bankrupt of course, if not leveraged to the hilt.

This may be a good thing. There is probably more to life than a Hummer, suburban McMansions, and triple, grande soy lattes. Don't tell my Starbucks barista however, because I pick up the NY Times there every morning. At least while it is still in print.