I left you a shout out thanking you for your excellent post- however- was “awaiting moderation” and then disappeared-

we’ll see if this posts- maybe I have been flagged as a “persona non grata” – who knows

re: “I agree here, Andy. Like cvienne said recently, fractional reserve banking is almost a license to counterfeit. I think what we witnessed in the 2000’s was widespread counterfeiting by those roving cavaliers.”

I wouldn’t call it counterfeiting though, as it was quite legal as permitted by our very accommodating legislative and executive branches. The shadow banking industry got what they paid for in political graft, oops, I mean contributions ( ) . And they sure had a party creating money in the form of debt, didn’t they?

But I take do the point that the Fed’s direct contribution to the bubble is lessened by this factor. But they (i.e. Greenspan) could have taken action to cut that off before it got out of control. He had much influence at the time (extolled as a financial genius and savior) and should have known that it would lead to disaster.

I think the reason he is targeted as the primary contributor to this fiasco by so many isn’t due to his primary role as the Fed chairman and control of interest rates, but that he among all people was uniquely most able to cut this off at the pass. If he had taken a strong stand against the proliferation of so much debt, maybe congress and the president would have been compelled to do something about it. But alas, his interests were too aligned with big banking and the finance industry. Look where he landed, pulling down enormous amounts of money for just flapping his yap.

We’ll never know what he could have done to help avoid this if he had a real moral conscience and a backbone.

You excellent long post did show up, and I recommend others have a look at it if you overlooked it:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/07/afternoon-reading-4/comment-page-1/#comment-189645

Thanks for taking the time Mike, it’s nice to get an inside perspective on such things.

There is much restructuring to be done throughout our economy/society as this debt bubbles bursts. It’s driven so many things in ways that many of us haven’t realized or foreseen.

I agree here, Andy. Like cvienne said recently, fractional reserve banking is almost a license to counterfeit. I think what we witnessed in the 2000’s was widespread counterfeiting by those roving cavaliers.
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If the only source of debt creation was “fractional reserve banking” we would have no where near the amount of problems we currently do. You didn’t need to be a legitimate bank to extend credit to anyone (See Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac/Sallie Mae/Ginnie Mae/etc, etc…).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/energy-environment/03renew.html?pagewanted=2&hp

When you only need an ever smaller % of the workforce to produce essentials, you need a lot of more unessential jobs to keep your population employed and consuming.

I’m nost sure that the answer is so much producing things as producing services that the population will be needing. For example, for the next 30 years, are we going to need more lawyers or more caregivers?

The problem is that we have a whole bunch of people lacking the skills for future demand/needs. Furthermore, the education requirements keep on getting higher, while the available funds/savings to pay for these services are quite low.

Today’s nurse is yesterday’s doctor with much lower pay. And that is going to continue.

Okie, Amen to your point about there being a crossover between bk and white collar crime. I think of bk court a lot like family court. Unstructured and messy, not at all what most people think of as legal practice. And people are so sketchy/careless . . . financial records — LOL!

I’m very, very fortunate to work with other lawyers I trust and actually like very much. There are actually quite a few people in the profession who “get it,” have people skillz, and just laugh at the a-holes and their paranoia and their overwrought “threatening” correspondence. You can make a comfortable living in the law without being an a-hole, believe it or not — even in family law.

so you changed careers and no longer practice law? I know that a degree in jurisprudence is 2 to 3 years beyond an undergrad- sure you learned much- but it still seems that that extra college degree may not be helping you in your current profession-

although life usually throws a few wrenches into anyone’s plans

anyone that has some info is welcome to comment
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Well, let me give you some of my background (I normally don’t like to talk about it). I was primarily a bankruptcy attorney in Oklahoma until they changed the bankruptcy laws in 2005. My practice went from doing 4 bankruptcies per week to about 4 per year. In 2007, I took a job with a private company and found out that I could have a career where I didn’t have so much stress. Now I don’t want to go back to the law practice.

I don’t regret the time I spent in the law practice because I learned how the real world works. There is a crossover between bankruptcy and white-collar crime. Although I was in Oklahoma, I saw what what was happening out in California and Florida even though I wasn’t there. I knew we were heading for Great Depression II because of all the fraud that was taking place.

As far as incomes for lawyers go, the legal profession is suffering the fate as the rest of society: you have a few lawyers who make all the money and rest get a pittance. And the pittance is not enough to pay off the student loans and have a family, or a house or any other number of things. The debt is starting to crowd out opportunities. Entrepreneurs and innovators cannot take the financial risk due to the “barriers to entry” that I keep harping about.