>The more annoying / sad aspect is that these ridiculous rates (if the positions are filled and they appear often enough) will drive down rates for the rest of us.

I wouldn't worry about that. It's mostly the oppositie that irritates me. For example, in Montreal, VB developers would go at 30 to 35 an hour rate for years up until recently and everytime some higher positions involving VFP requirements was released, where such a rate would start at 50 and up, the company was saying well, if we were hiring VB developers, we could have ones for 30 an hour.