Collapse ??!

[musashi]

I am amazed by this story out of the AP today. It reads eerily similar to one of the scenes in Atlas Shrugged. I am thinking about the scene where the most powerful bureaucrats (Wesley Mouch & Kip Chalmers I think) are confronted by their own impotence. Ayn Rand used the effects of this simple meeting like the withdrawal of critical lynch pin which led to the collapse of society in Atlas.

This real life meeting happed at the highest levels of the US government just a few months ago… Real life is beginning to imitate fiction. Are we headed for a collapse?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – New York's attorney general says government officials pressured Bank of America's CEO Ken Lewis to complete the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch and threatened his job security.

A letter from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office released Thursday said Lewis testified in February that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke threatened to oust Bank of America's management if the bank tried to back out of buying the investment bank.

The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America over the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under, setting off one of the most intense periods of the financial crisis.

Bank of America acquired New York-based Merrill Jan. 1.

[Riprion]

Wait, I thought all of her characters were cariacatures and all the scenes were reductio ad absurdae. You mean that stuff can really happen?

[musashi]

In the ways of men… apparently so.

In Physics and technology not so much…

• * Rearden metal read much like Aluminum. And our capacity to make and alloy Aluminum was growing by leaps and bounds during the period she was writing the book. But Aluminum does not have all the properties ascribed to Rearden metal (not as strong, not as durable, not as corrosion resistant).
  
  * Gault’s engine was a convenient anchor in the plot, but it sounded like a perpetual motion proposal to me.
  
  * The cloaking barrier over the glittering gulch? Not possible by today’s technology as I know it.

But hey those aspects of the story were futuristic. I think an author like Ayn Rand has license within the fictional framework to imagine the difficult and the impossible. If for no other reason than to inspire men to transform dreams into reality….

But wait, what if the realization of those dreams becomes a Pandora’s Box and we get a negative outcome from the fiction? Should a writer like Rand self-censor and avoid ideas that may have a negative impact on the world?

[Borysoff]

But wait, what if the realization of those dreams becomes a Pandora’s Box and we get a negative outcome from the fiction? Should a writer like Rand self-censor and avoid ideas that may have a negative impact on the world?

What if comet falls on planet and we all may be extinct like dinosaurs, or nuclear war, or alien invasion? That sucks. Everybody must commit suicide to prevent anything bad to happen. Oh, by the way we will save the Earth for future generations!!!
2 great benefits here

Ideas, dreams can't have negative impact. People can be stupid.
Forbid dreams, and they stay stupid forever.

[redhotrebel]

Ideas, dreams can't have negative impact. People can be stupid.
Forbid dreams, and they stay stupid forever.

I only want to address the first sentence but I figured it would sound intellectually dishonest if I didn't leave in the entire quote.

Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky, Mao Zedong, Hoxha, Tito, Hussein, Jong- Il, Castro, Carter, Obama... I think you get my point.

(I do honestly hope you were being facetious.)

[Torrstar]

Actually, the collapse was narrowly averted last fall with actions such as this and others.

Wasn't just Merril Lynch and BOA, every major bank was "designated" to purchase some failing assets in order to shore up the FED system and if anyone backed out I can see it upsetting the entire plan.

My employer picked the assets and liabilities of several failing institutions which while they appear to have been reasonable investments, I'm sure there was some strong pressure from outside agencies to participate in the plan.

[Oleksandr]

All the major banks' CEO were shoved in a single room for a few hours, and not let go until they signed all forms that they are taking TARP money. So yeah, it was all forced.

And now we have 90% cuts to CEO pay b/c they have taken tax payers' money. Nice trick, huh?

[musashi]

Wasn't just Merrill Lynch and BOA, every major bank was "designated" to purchase some failing assets in order to shore up the FED system…

The recent FDIC idea of requiring banks to pre-pay three years worth of premiums to rebuild the sinking fund is another bad deal. I know government regulation is often considered inefficient and misguided, but it seems like direct government action is so much worse.

This whole too big to fail thing, exposes a real actuarial issue for the FDIC. They couldn’t cover the losses of these big banks so they strong armed (we might say enslaved) other banks to take on the problem. Then the 100 or so smaller banks failed in the last 12 months and the FDIC wants a payday loan. To me the problem seems actuarial. The FDIC didn’t charge a high enough premium to cover the risks at hand. And now they are painting themselves into a corner. Banks that have paid three years in advanced have a good case to avoid any future increase in premiums. Not to mention the added FDIC costs will drive many more banks into insolvency. All this appears to be a function of the direct government action.

I wonder how bad it would have been if the government did not act and let these banks fail. I suspect it would have toppled the US fiat monetary system, perhaps the US government.

I wonder how bad it would have been if the government had tampered with the system earlier with additional regulations.

Too big to fail; direct government intervention; increased regulation I wonder which is the greatest evil? One thing for sure government is increasing its span of control under each circumstance.

[Torrstar]

All the major banks' CEO were shoved in a single room for a few hours, and not let go until they signed all forms that they are taking TARP money. So yeah, it was all forced.

And now we have 90% cuts to CEO pay b/c they have taken tax payers' money. Nice trick, huh?

It actually went a lot like this. Our firm didn't need TARP money, but we were "encouraged" to take it because if we didn't, it would make the other banks seem far weaker in comparison and perhaps lead to their collapse.

But due to the strings attached we paid it off earlier this year (at a substantial financial penalty due to the warrants we had to let the govt exercise) and are now free of direct government intervention though they keep trying to impose limits on our compensation.

[BOS Hydra]

"* The cloaking barrier over the glittering gulch? Not possible by today’s technology as I know it."

From what I read of it, it sounded more like a giant hologram projector. The plane flew straight through the projection thinking she was going to hit ground, then looked again and saw the real ground.


But to the original question, I think it will all hit the ground within a few years, or at least be well underway the downward spiral. Everything currently happening CANNOT solely be the product of non-thinking. Humans are only, what, 400-500 years out of the Dark Age? Most of us still act like primitive warring tribes.

One word. Marionettes.

EDIT: And hello again after 1.5 years.

[Oleksandr]

Everything currently happening CANNOT solely be the product of non-thinking. Humans are only, what, 400-500 years out of the Dark Age? Most of us still act like primitive warring tribes.

One word. Marionettes.

EDIT: And hello again after 1.5 years.

Welcome back, though, your post didn't make any sense to me. What is "everything"? And why can't it be the product of irrationality?