It's apparent McCain had never heard of the President's Working Group.

I suspect he wouldn't know much about the liquidity trap*, either.

* "the point at which open-market purchases of Treasury bills, the normal way monetary policy operates, don’t have any effect because the T-bill rate is near zero." Paul Krugman

Um, who's Gabby Hayes? I suspect McCain *would* know that answer to that one...

It really didn't take a rocket scientist to see -- many years ago -- yet another American national Ponzi scheme blowing up once the necessarily increasing base of the hyper-leveraged pyramid collapsed from consuming available reality. Even some of us reasonably educated -- and bitterly experienced -- Vietnam Veteran poets could figure it out. Take, for example, this little segment of my never-ending saga about the primitive tribe of post-linguistic Boobies: Fernando Po, U. S. A.:

"Boobie Deadbeats"

The latest news looks very good
For man has bitten hound
And Deadbeat Boobie Dubya's learned
A new way to astound
This time he's simply run our country's
Name into the ground

You see, he doesn't think that all
Those treaties we have signed
Should make us keep our word and so
America's resigned
Which -- if he had one -- might lead us
To think he'd lost his mind

But why all this unseemly haste
Our treaties to renounce?
To show that if he had a brain
It wouldn't weigh an ounce?
No, Deadbeat earned his name because
His checks would always bounce

You see this Boobie had no funds
Within his bank account
But still he had some unsigned checks
With no filled-in amount
And so he gave himself some loans
Which he thought wouldn't count

"What difference do numbers make?"
He asked as he wrote some
"If I just add enough of these,
The Tooth Fairy will come
And make sure that I end up with
A very tidy sum."

"And what about these circle things
With commas in between?
I think I'll use four groups and make
The figure round and clean.
If I take this to Greenspan's Bank
He'll cash it sight unseen."

"And Santa Clause will surely help,"
He thought as he wrote more.
"I bet he'll let me have all of
The toys within the store.
Can't see why not," this Boobie thought,
"He always has before."

"I'll just deploy the troops," George thought
"Since Congress doesn't care.
Then blackmail them for endless funds
And catch them unaware.
They'd never think to draw the line
Since they would not know where."

As Reagan taught us, Cheney said,
Big spending never kills
Just charge the nation's credit card
And take off for the hills
Then deficits don't matter ‘cause
The kids will pay the bills

So Bush bought in and rolled the dice
He loved this gambler's den
He never asked to know how much
Just who and where and when
"It's all found money!" he rejoiced
"In Washington's pig pen"

He'd beg a meal from Popeye and
Like Wimpy he would say:
"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for
A hamburger today."
Which meant, of course, that he had no
Intention to repay

"When Tuesday comes, I won't be here,"
He snickered as he spent
"I'll eat my burger now and get
Those bankers to relent
Till I can high-tail out of town
And stiff them for the rent."

"I'll bet those foreign lenders shit
When they wake up and find
That I've welshed on our bidness deal
And left them in a bind;
Devaluing the currency
To screw the bastards blind."

"That's what they get for selling us
The stuff that we can't make,
And taking in our dollars which
Are so easy to fake,
While all my many 'have-more' friends
Continue on the take."

"And I don't see why taxpayers
Should give me so much flak.
Why, Boobie Bremer lost nine of
Those billions in Iraq,
And no one's even asked him when
He plans to give them back."

"So what's the deal with bugging me
Because I cannot say
Where I spend all that money when
I go outside to play?
What does `full faith and credit' mean
When I plan not to pay?"

And so the deadbeat Dubya went
Once more off to attack
His doubleplusgood mantras learned,
In Duckspeak he would quack
He'd say one thing on Monday then
On Tuesday take it back

In con man circles tricks like this
Are called the bait-and-switch
If you know how to work them
They can really make you rich
Or else earn you a bad repute
As one son of a bitch

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2005

What a shock! What a shock, I tell you, to discover gambling going on at Rick's Wall Street Club and Casino! And how utterly typical of the viscious and venal American government (currently under Republican Party mismanagement) to rob the American people yet more and again to make sure the high rolling losers come out of their own shit smelling like a bed of roses.

What McCain meant, of course, was that the workers of America are the best in the world, and he takes insult that you would say otherwise.

No matter how many times 'Wall Street' offered up a bag-o-bonds for sale that turned out to be 'junk'--the Central Banks of China and Russia stepped up. They never refused. Somehow, the message abstracted by the sellers was this: "They are going to make us rich. They will buy anything we offer them."

The thought of a 'sure thing' fueled an appetitie for greed that withered all fears, blinded all risks, as they scrambled to come up with more, more, more to the Chinese and the Russians. They had to scramble far and wide to find borrowers. No documentation--that's ok. No down payment? Never mind. We have mortgages for EVERYBODY. We'll just securitize them, leverage them, and sell the bonds to the Chinese. Ha! We're gonna be rich!! What could go wrong?

Is this the work of the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang Tse? Did the Chinese, and the Russians, (both with the worlds greatest heritage for Communist experimentation), suss out that America's greatest weakness and strategic vulnerability was its greed and desire for unrestrained raw capitalism?

In other words--was buying up all our junk bonds a form of Asymmetrical Warfare? Inquiring mind cannot help but wonder how they turned us into a socialist nation?

The people who lost their houses--did they get bailed out by refinancing their too clever by half fancy mortgages into good old fashioned 30 or 40 year fixed mortgages? No. Could Uncle Sam have decided to help there, in THAT way? Yes.

Instead, who is it that ultimately receives the largess of the US Treasury and the Fed? Is it the Central Banks of Russis and China? The Russians of course, have a long heritage of chess mastery. The Chinese had Lao Tse, Chuang Tse, Sun Tzu, and Confucius.

I read a few years ago that it was popular on wall street to read The Art of War. That may have been more prescient than they realized, but I have yet to see any sign that they assimilated it's lessons.

I have zero interest in this thread.

Sarah Palin says the John McCain should not be criticized for his "verbiage" bout the fundamentals of the economy. It's interesting that on of the dictionary's definitions of verbiage is "the use of many words without necessity, or with little sense."

I agree with Ellen. Let them take a haircut. Whoever owns those mortgages, let them take their losses. That probably won't happen, though, because Bush/Bernanke and their friends own too many bonds and other securities.

There is a lot of concern that foreigners will stop buying our debt. What else will they do with their dollars? They can spend them, invest them, or hide them under their mattresses. What other options do they have?