>I hardly think our economy is on the edge of collapsing. You've got to understand the economics of a Presidential election year. Don't believe everyting you read. Compare our unemployment rate with France. The housing market is choking on sub-prime loans because of greed and fraud, not George Bush.

GW2B is the tip of that iceberg - the "gummint will serve big corp" cabal which has unleashed that greed upon the world. They had to tighten it up a bit after Enron et al - but guess what, just like any other American law, Sarbanes-Oxley was limited. It didn't cover banks and investor firms, and guess from where does the next jet of crap target the fan?

It's not that the system is fine, it's the greedy and corrupt individuals, a few rotten apples. The greed is the system, and it creates this circular firing squad, where every player is maximizing their profits at the expense of taking a bit of everybody else, by firing their own workforce but counting that workers of others will remain their customers, by squeezing every last dime of future debt from anyone stupid enough to be 5 minutes late on their credit card payment, by charging fees and interest and interest on fees at much higher than usury rates, and still hoping that they'll having a market for the houses they get when the debtors default.

Nope, nada, you squeezed it all. You were too successful. You maxed out on your profits, you got all the money that can be taken. Now you either start pumping some of it back, or orchestrate the crisis you created.

We can raise ourselves by the straps of our boots, by pumping more imaginary money, from the same paradise where the imaginary billions of stock value have gone. As long as everybody believes that that money works like real money, we may still be fine. Of course, it does PO me vastly that I'm having USD in my pockets, not SKR, EUR or CHF or anything but.

>Bankers - and specifically the Fed , currency speculators, junk bond traders, international cartels and just natural market fluctuations have a lot more to do with our economy ( and yours ) than weather or not 'public opinion' in Europe likes our president or not.

Exactly. It's much more about whether THEY like the candidate ;).