"The Invisible Hand", a.k.a "Bigby's Crushing Fist"

[pyat]

At the current rate of loss, the Dow will reach zero by next week! And it won't stay at zero, no sir! We'll enter the strange and terrible land of NegaDow. The government will own everything, except itself. The paper money and coins in your wallet will turn into units of antiwealth, and explode violently upon exposure to free market forces.

Comments

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

From the Colbert Report a couple of nights ago:

"The bad news is the Dow dropped five hundred points! The good news? I didn't know the Dow had five hundred points left!" Oh, how I laughed.

Doug.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

Is NegaDow anything like NegaDuck?

[unselighe.livejournal.com]

NegaDuck Rules!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

More like NegaScrooge McDuck, I think.

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

I've long held the belief that the Dow is vastly overinflated. This bubble-burst has been a long time coming.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I blame Alan Greenspan. Partly!

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Yes, This economic crisis came about after he retired! His leaving caused this all! Curse you Alan Greenspan!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Presuming you're being sarcastic, here.

Remember, he didn't retire till 2006. He's a Libertarian and Objectivist who has stated that the banking industry can regulate itself.

While it obviously be a mistake to put the blame on any one person, his economic policies are at least partly to blame. He has come close to admitting this, saying in 2007 that he "didn't really get it until late 2005 or 2006", with "it" being the fact that the market was going to collapse. Though, when he cut the lending rates in 2002 after the 9/11 attacks, he predicted it would lead to a surge in mortgages and re-financing.

In 2004 he was advising homeowners to get adjustable rate mortgages. At that point, the federal lending rate was 1%. Two years later, he'd raised it to 5.25%, so all those people who got adjustable rate mortgages got the shaft.

Greenspan is currently claiming that his policies were sound. Bankers just go too greedy. Gosh, corporations getting greedy. What a surprise, Mr. Greenspan...

The New York Times looked at his role in the current crisis earlier this month (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09greenspan.html).

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

NegaDow, evil super villain! Once a mild manner investment banker, now lurking in the shadows of trading floors!

Or somethin'

[dhstein.livejournal.com]

lol! Sounds like a super villian to me!

[pwned-kisa.livejournal.com]

...I know that you're joking around, but... honestly? This is really terrifying.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

NegaDow, beautiful. The sad thing is, the first thing that came to my mind after reading your post was "NegaDow - Land of the Drow!" And then the next thing I thought after that was "What would a NegaDrow be like?" And then I realized how stupid a chain of thought this was turning out to be, so I stopped.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

It is my understanding that when the Dow goes negative, black holes will start streaming rainbows, dead pets will return to life healed and hearty, and sewers will vomit up wads of delicious candy.

I, for one, await this event eagerly. n.n

[relee.livejournal.com]

Bah, this is all because my aunt retired. She was in charge of Dow's money, and now they're all screwing around without her. She was one of their most important accountants; she even had to go to Iraq early in the war! It's neat.

I'm really looking forward to going to their house for thanksgiving this weekend, they're crazy rich.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

I'm interested to see that all of a sudden, reporters are saying Canadians can't borrow money. Since when? This week? I heard someone say that Wall Street has a 2-minute attention span, or something close to that - unfortunately, so does the media.
I can accept that the situation is serious, but I doubt that hysteria is ever called for.

Unless I still have reports that still aren't written. That's a good time to be hysterical. Otherwise, never.