How close were we to financial meltdown

[Hawaii Hiker]

Apparently REAL close,

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/02/10/how_close_we_came_to_total_meltdown.html

"Said Kanjorski: "If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2 p.m. that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

:scared:

[Delphinus]

1. Did we just stave it off?

I mean, how much more do we, the taxpayer, have to give the bank to bail their asses out so they don't go bankrupt while we do?

[TMA68]

8. As long as we act like sheep, they'll continue to fleece us.

I mean, how much more do we, the taxpayer, have to give the bank to bail their asses out so they don't go bankrupt while we do?

Until the taxpayers say "enough is enough!" and start demanding -- not requesting, demanding -- that Congress implement a long-overdue structural reform of our parasitic, debt-based monetary system:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5016324&mesg_id=5016324

[thewiseguy]

2. I do not trust that estimate.

[ixion]

3. how close we 'are'

all that heist, er 'bailout', did was to postpone the inevitable, and make it worse when it does hit.

[jwirr]

4. Since that did not happen I would guess that we are still very close

to the edge and are just in a supporting the system phase not necessarily the recovery phase.

[Fleshdancer]

5. So increasing the FDIC saved us? Wasn't that Obama's plan?

Why yes, yes it was. Suck on THAT John McCain!

Obama wants to raise deposit insurance

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Tuesday proposed that the revivied bailout plan include an increase in federal insurance on deposits from the current $100,000 to a beefed-up $250,000.

Obama calls it "a step that would boost small businesses, make our banking system more secure, and help restore public confidence in our financial system.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/14110.html

[Loge23]

6. Might not be a bad thing

I am trying hard to realize just what "the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it" actually means to us.
In many ways, I believe this is at hand now. I feels like we are just keeping a body alive now - a body that has long ceased to function in any meaningful way.
Our economic and political system is hopelessly corrupt and ineffective. We are far from the ideal of government by and for the people. Our economic system in America has also long since ceased to function as a support apparatus of the American dream - now, it's the tail wagging the dog. We don't make much here anymore, corporations are more concerned with financial finagling than they are with providing meaningful products or jobs, and the average American consumer has the financial IQ of a pinball machine.
So what are we anyway? Why should we fear the specter of total collapse when the wreckage of our failure is all around us?

[Soylent Brice]

7. YAY!! we were close to disaster!! YAY!!!

[MilesColtrane]

9. The entire banking system is dead already.

It's just still walking around, zombified.

[underpants]

10. WOW

just WOW