what to make of all of these stock market crashes.

I have never taken a full economics course. However, I do consider myself a political economist, and I guess this is what I think about all of these crashes. the ones that have wiped a full 25% out of my retirement portfolio – the one the government tells you is so vital to create, and the banks and credit unions are so encouraging of because of the high commissions they collect.

1. greed equates to the failure of the stock market now. greedy people – the same ones as the AIG brokers who dined in luxurious surroundings after the US government had bailed them out, only to a tune of $700 billion of future spending (multiply that bailout by the interest it’ll take to pay it off, and that $700 billion is easily, easily over a trillion US dollars.
2. consumerism is what they are counting on to buck the trend, but who feels like consuming when the dollar loses four cents in two days? FOUR CENTS is over 5% people! in two days!
3. our economy is so intimately connected with the United States that no matter what anybody says I am certain we are sinking quickly as the US economy sinks. There is no other rationale – global capitalism decided to move money as quickly as emails, and thus money has spread everywhere. But with that spread of ficticious computer cash comes a spreading of the problem of this collapse. people are pulling their stocks out of losing positions, and that means the americans who own Canadian corporations (let’s face it – there really are few “Canadian” corporations anymore) are pulling their money from us too.
4. I don’t give a shit if the IMF says we have the best banks. This is the same Monetary Fund that believes structural readjustment policies should mean the privatization of water services in the poorest of the poor regions of Bolivia, for example (Cochachamba) – so whatever the IMF says I take with a grain of salt. Their opinions are about money, not really about human responsibility. And – their opinions have failed.
5. We are failing to learn from the past. We have had multiple gigantic corrections, and we seem to think that this all just goes away and gets better becuase the market, with all of its flaws, is the best system. Funny, I don’t really think a system that takes my measly savings in somewhat “ethical” investments and trashes them, leaving me with 25% less capital to levy against purchasing a home, or getting more education, or even simply “spending” is a system that could be the best.

To my mind, there has never been a better time to use all of this evidence to make substantial changes. and two of the world’s G8 countries are heading into federal elections within weeks! What a chance.

So – will Canadians and Americans finally take a chance on doing things DIFFERENTLY, or will they accept the fear factor and vote for the same old policies – the “30 day studies” and the “cutting taxes” syndromes – that cause these major problems for us all in the first place?

(and lest anyone think it’s only stockbrokers who are having problems here, it’s every Canadian, every American – they have put our pensions on the stockmarket, and by doing so, we are all now less well off. thanks, fuckers.)