More awesome banking info

It seems like more and more people are waking up and paying attention to reality. I just watched Jon Stewart interview Jim Cramer about the bad calls CNBC made with regards to the stock market, and I think Jim said something very telling:

Talking about Bear Sterns being leveraged 35 to 1:

JS: But honest or not, in what world is a 35 to 1 leverage position sane?
JC: The world that made you 30% year after year after year beginning from 1999 to 2007

Jon swept past it, but its absolutely true. We have been in an up market for over 25 years, with a huge boom for the last eight of them, and reality, intelligence and responsibility just went out the window. And no one really cared cause it all just seemed to keep working, and everyone made money.

And now here is an article about how Ben Bernake wants to keep acting that way:
Creative Accounting Won't Solve The Banking Industry's Problems

Actually, most of the gov't wants to pretend that's still the world we live in. That we still live in a world where things are growing so well that if we just wait, we'll make money again. Not going to happen. The past is the past. I highly recommend reading Conspiracy of the Rich, (what's been released so far anyway) or if you are into reading technical economic books, Human Nature and The Grunch of Giants. This is a fascinating thing going on, and its fascinating how people are reacting to it, but I hold to my original metaphor:

The US has become morbidly obese and now is on a forced diet, but Uncle Sam keeps trying to feed us pie and cakes to ease our pain. The pain is healing, and good. Let it happen. Pie and cakes will only make our diet last longer.