It's the economy. Stupid?

Alright, so I have a confession. I don't understand economics. I seem to have an actual, physical, allergy to it. Whenever people start to talk about it my brain tries to crawl out of my head through my ear. This is why I haven't written anything about it recently. But my 'wait and hope it goes away' approach seems to have failed so I asked a few people to dumb it down for me.

Apparently the mess started when the banks lent out more money than they actually had. It seems they can do this because they were lending out against the promise of other loans being paid back sooner or something like that. Then the housing bubble burst and the lending house of cards imploded.

This brings us to the bailout. Basically the problem is that the banks have no real value. The loans exist in some quantum state of both having a value and being worthless at the same time. So the government is stepping in by buying Schrodinger's loans. By buying these loans the government is giving banks real value and thus ensuring that they are not dead cats.

Personally I don't worry too much about where the government finds the money to pay for the 700 billion dollar bill. I expect it will be paid for by the same people who pay for everything else the government does for me, namely my children and their children. I would worry for them, but we have a long tradition of passing on bills like this and I expect them to do the same to their offspring.

Well at Least They're Safe...

Right, so it's been a few months since I've written anything and I'm sorry about that, but the elections got boring. For the first time in my memory we had two nominees who won on moderate platforms. Both McCain and Obama had independents to thank for their early wins. Granted their moderate platforms were very different. Obama was running on a platform of change and hope while McCain ran on what I can only describe as curmudgeony experience.

Sadly they are still boring. I had high hopes for the VP choices. They really could have woken up the moderate center of America that is tired of far left/far right politics. They could have made a real effort at reuniting the country. They decided not to.

Obama, candidate of change, hope, and vague idealism. His VP choice: Joe Biden, epitome of Washington Establishmentism. I have nothing against Biden really, but he doesn't fit with a platform of change. He's been in the Senate for 35 years. The only interesting part of his selection as VP is watching the liberal media outlets bend over backwards to paint him as a "Washington Outsider". Apparently going home regularly (he lives a whole 2 hours away) is enough to keep you "outside" in Washington.

Meanwhile over in McCain land we witness the candidate of EXPERIENCE (said in a loud booming voice). His VP choice: Sarah Palin the first term governor of Alaska. Apparently she's some kind of darling for the social conservatives, but again, she doesn't fit with a platform of experience. She's been Governor of Alaska for 2 years. Before that she was mayor of a town about half the size of my college for 6 years. Again, however, it is entertaining to watch the conservative media outlets bend over backwards to paint her as experienced. Apparently she's better than Obama or Biden because two years is more than either of them (or McCain) has in the executive branch. Also, it's apparently worth noting that since Alaska is so close to Russia, she has foreign policy experience, in much the same way that everyone living next to the ocean is an Olympic Swimmer.

In conclusion, I'm still utterly disappointed in the candidates. Maybe one of them will excite me by November... but I doubt it.