Friday, December 19, 2008

The Ponzi generation

Shorter Paul Krugman: Greed is not good.

And he coins a new label with my favorite word.
But the costs of America’s Ponzi era surely went beyond the direct waste of dollars and cents.
Seriously, I was calling the Bushenomic boom a Ponzi scheme for years, even when the experts were waving their charts around and proclaiming all this wonderful growth. The earliest reference I find here is May 06 and before that I was calling it a house of cards. I'm sure I used it even earlier than that at DetNews but their archives are too clunky to search.

If I had a dollar for every time someone called me stupid for saying it then, I could be vacationing in the tropics right now.

[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]

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5 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

And I called it a Ponzi scheme back in the internet bubble days in '98. Oh wait, you can't blame that on Bush. Never mind.

2:46:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Far enough Eric. I don't hold Clinton blameless. I think the roots can be traced as far back as Reagan. Still Clinton delivered his bubble with a surplus. Didn't take W long to burn through that and his feels like the biggest Ponzi scheme yet to me.

2:56:00 PM  
Blogger (O)CT(O)PUS said...

Yes, it does begin with Reagan. When Carter was trying to warn about excessive consumption, Reagan came along and said "greed is good" promising a "Shining City upon a Hill," which the American people embraced with customary country-bumpkinism.

After the medicine show, drink up! These past few weeks, I've come to the same conclusion. You call it "The Ponzi Generation." I would have called it "The Age of Greed and Corruption." Same difference.

Time to slouch towards Bethlehem.

4:29:00 PM  
Blogger dave™© said...

Oh wait, you can't blame that on Bush.

Yes, he and his imcompetent, corrupt administration, which is even as we speak still attempting to loot the U.S. Treasury of everything that isn't nailed down, is blameless. Clinton, who hasn't been in office for 8 years and who left "President" Drunken Sociopath and His Merry Band of Thieves, a big fat surplus that they immediately squandered, is, of course, the REAL culprit.

Oh - and the shiftless Negroes that forced the poor bankers to give them home loans.

"Asshat" doesn't begin to describe these morons...

4:40:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Octo, too many words to describe it, but yours is more accurate.

Dave, you're right but asshat is good start...

5:32:00 PM  

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