Reading about similarities between the Great Depression and this one oncoming probable Depression: there were massive income disparities which began before the Depression with workers and farmers earning just barely enough to stay alive even in the midst of ‘growth’…and then when a downturn hits…consumers stop spending…leading to a spiral downwards in lack of demand. Differences in responses now though the Govt. knows better to spend money and keep the wheels of commerce greased. Unfortunately, giving Wall Street Banks money doesn’t guarantee that consumers will spend money….as the last 8 years have seen a drop in worker’s incomes compared to the massive increase of wealth in the top 1 percent. That’s why Obama’s tax cuts for ordinary people and necessary increases in taxes for the upper one percent are necessary…as the wealth hasn’t ‘trickled’ down for some time now.

Average people need both a supply of cash…and that will build demand for goods and services that are ‘affordable’ not more Credit. The reasons for much use of credit is that it was easy and that people thought their earnings would increase…however, for the last eight years incomes have fallen behind even during a ‘recovery’. Thank You, GW Bush and the Republicans!

not sure if one can properly pronounce “pwned”. I am thinking of either a pawn shop item or a prawn. With more and more of us communicating via keyboards/IM….spoken language is maybe anachronistic?

The basic premise is that the market is essentially a function of demographic trends. When people move through various stages of their life they spend in different, predictable ways. Empty nesters tend to be major consumer spenders as their income is highest and expenses lowest. It in part explains why this was a robust period for consumerism. But in 2009, all of those baby boomers will retire and this is in Glassman’s view the beginning of a recessionary period. He was wrong about the market “trend,” but the economics of the argument are actually fairly interesting.

And Nader is still a boob.

Pwn is a leetspeak slang term, derived from the word “own”, that implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet gaming culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated (e.g. “You just got pwned!”). Past tense is sometimes spelled pwnt (pronounced with a t sound), pwned, pwnd, pwn3d, or powned (with the standard d sound).

In hacker jargon, to “pwn” means “to compromise” or “to control,” specifically another computer (server or PC), web site, gateway device, or application. It is synonymous with one of the definitions of hacking or cracking. An outside party who has “owned” or “pwned” a system has obtained unauthorized administrative control of the system.