On Dec 22, 10:22 pm, "John W." <worthj1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 22, 3:01 am, Declan Murphy <declan_mur...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Dec 20, 10:26 pm, "John W." <worthj1...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > On Dec 18, 10:17 am, Declan Murphy <declan_mur...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > Shit. I really hope that the US Fed, ECB, BoJ and other central banks
> > > > can remember how to spell "p.r.i.n.t.i.n.g.p.r.e.s.s."
>
> > > We might have to wait until someone with a different agenda sits in
> > > those offices, at least as far as the US goes.
>
> > Maybe, its a shame the transition is so long, I don't know of any
> > country where the transistion to a new executive takes many months.
>
> Ain't it a great system? At least one state still hasn't completed the
> vote count for the Senate race. It's 2008 and we still haven't come up
> with a better system of counting votes than having piles for this
> person and that person. (and no jokes about having piles)

Most countries still count by hand. Maybe there are more legal
challenges?

> > In terms of avoiding a deeper recession than would otherwise be the case,
> > I think its too late already. The US in particular seems to have
> > entered the kind of liquidity trap that I until recently I thought
> > only existed in economic history and theory.
>
> It also looks like we've learned nothing from the Japanese situation.
> I truly believe that if the government had left things alone it all
> would have worked out. It would've been painful for some, but on the
> whole I think we would have come out of it okay.

Your faith in unregulated free markets John is somewhat endearing :-)
Actually the boundless optimism that seems part of being Sepponian is
also somewhat endearing. Unless of course what you mean by "if the
government had left things alone it all would have worked out", you
were implying that if a more extension base of underlying regulation
had been retained, things wouldn't be as dire.

I would suggest that it was excessive deregulation* that contributed
to this "financial crisis" and to the liquidity trap the US is already
in and likely to drag some other economies into.

*(of measures implemented between the Great Depression and Bretton
Woods agreement, measures that by and large were implemented for good
reason)