Does it help to know that they bailed out greedy banks all over the world (over 50% of the bailout money went to foreign banks)?

Yes, greed is as old as humanity... er, humankind. Let's not confuse humanity with humans, right?   Back in the days of cavemen, hunters went after the largest boar, not necessarily because they needed it, but to deprive their competitors of it.  So as it was with the Greeks, Romans and other empire builders, the greater accumulation of wealth and resources was nearly always driven by greed rather than need.

It is no different today, though the empire builders are corporations rather than nations... meaning the profits are centralised and benefiting fewer recipients.

Yes, companies are groups of individuals, but all to often those individuals hide behind the "inanimate object" to avoid responsibility and liability.  Too frequently the top execs pass the buck down the line until reaches some poor innocent grunt becomes the fall guy because he has neither the power or ability to prove his/her innocence.   Happened to me more than once... the management f**ked up and I was one of the lower echelon to cop the blame. 

Nope, I can't say as I like upper-end businessmen at all.  Of all the ones I've met personally {and had time to assess], every one of them was an asshole who'd walk over his own mother to further his agenda.  There were a couple of women among those, too... and I pity any poor bastard who ended up in bed with either of them... they'd get all intimate like and come up with a handful of balls.

There is/are always exceptions to the rule... and family owned businesses who employ local families are often in this category.  I worked for a cane furniture manufacturer whose wife, son and son-in-law helped run the business, and it was one of the best places I ever worked.  The money wasn't fantastic, but the conditions were great, the factory was always friendly and the boss always looked after us.  If ever we ever needed time off to attend to family, whatever, he would always accommodate us loyal employees.  Yup, local/family businesses have more to gain by not being greedy, but by being fair and loyal to the community and their employees.

As for the Fed bailing out ANY bank, US or foreign, it stinks worserer than a roomful of agitated skunks.   Greed got banks into the shit they found themselves, and as far as I'm concerned, if they couldn't legitimately trade themselves back into solvency, they deserved to go under.  In my opinion, Obama made the mistake of bailing out the banks before enforcing strict legislation that gave the Fed greater control over the practices of banks.  In other words, we're enjoying a brief calm before the next financial storm.  Further, laws needed to be enacted or amended to make bankers criminally liable for unsavoury banking/business practices.

Ah, but starkers, you forget, the reason corporations aren't growing enough jobs in the US economy is because of 'intrusive' government regulations, onerous taxes, and far too few tax payer subsidized corporate subsidies.  If Obama tried to increase regulation on the banksters, the Republicans, and too many (sadly to say) Democrats would have voted articles of impeachment on him.  Clinton escaped.   Obama might not have.

The corporations want us to believe this is the case... but in reality, automation and shipping jobs offshore would be the leading reasons jobs have become more scarce....

Same here in Australia... the manufacturing sector was our biggest employer, and because we made exportable goods we kept our balance of payments under better check.  Now mining, tourism and the retail sectors employ more Australians, but the retail sector is struggling because rising interest rates and utility prices have eroded consumer confidence, tourism is suffering on the back of natural disasters and a nervous world economy.  While mining is currently in boom, thanks mostly to a booming Chinese economy, the arse end will fall out of that in the not distant future and Australia will be in recession.  Why, because Aussie banks and businesses are more cut throat greedy capitalists than US businessmen ever were.

As for the US, given the shifting in economic power, it has seen its glory days and will end up having to settle for a spot somewhere much farther down the economic ladder... and with its languishing economic prospects its military might will also languish.  Old money has seen its day as a world leader.  It was Europe's turn 200 - 300 years back, now it's the US' turn to make way for new money.  Asia will lead the world into the new economic dynasty, and the US, along with Europe and the UK, will have to stop whining about playing second fiddle, because frankly, they'll be lucky to even be included in the band.

How do I know all this?  Greed!  Greed has been the downfall of most if not all empires, and the US, while it may not have been actively been empire building, it still was amassing an empire by stealth... via wars, war reparations, loans, aggressive financial takeovers, etc, etc...and the precursor to it all was greed.  A greed that surely be its undoing just as it was the undoing of the Roman Empire, etc, etc. 

In the end, however, it comes down to simple economics.  While the US, Europe and the UK have been trading in the stock market and amassing what essentially is fictitious money, China, South Korea, India, Taiwan, etc, have been building upon and trading manufactured goods... those real, tangible goods we all want to make our modern lives more comfortable, entertaining and efficient.  That's why their economies are thriving!  They are trading in REAL goods... those goods we used to make but our businesses shipped offshore to exploit cheap labour.  Why aren't we doing so good?  We're importing those goods and our balance of payments never adds up because we're borrowing up to our eyeballs and too busy trading in false economies.

But why would anyone listen to me?  I'm just a flatulent pirate with no head for booty.

Starkers:  Check out Dr. Richard D Wolff, an economist, ivy league, now at the New School in NYC.  His analysis and yours are very close.  I think you would enjoy reading and listening to his lectures, etc. www.rdwolff.com

I listen to you.

Until I have to run because of the *other* thing.

And I'm not a university educated economist/historian/prophet.  I went back to high school when I was 33 to further my education, but my observations regarding the world economy are based on current trends and the one common denominator that links the modern world to the excesses of the ancient one...  and that is greed.  Besides, it doesn't take an economic genius to work out that the world is once again in economic decay... well more the Western World in this case.

It's a bit like a nephew of mine. He was the subject of a great deal of extended family generosity when his dad died, yet as an adult he has become self.centred and greedy, charging family for menial tasks and [figuratively speaking] always taking the biggest slice of pie for himself... sculling down 3 or 4 beers in express time to ensure he gets the last one... and you or somebody else bought the carton.  Yeah, well his greed has seen him on the outer with family while his younger sibling and cousins find themselves being appropriately rewarded for their freely offered help. 

As it is with my nephew, so it was with Europe and Great Britain, and now with the US... greed saw that more was taken out than was ever replenished/put back, and now the younger siblings/cousins are finding themselves in greater favour throughout the world.  The emerging Asian nations now have a stronger work ethic and business sense, as they place greater value in tangible goods, not false economies dependent on stock markets, electronic cash and banking subterfuge. Sure China and India have stock markets and banks, but they do not solely depend on those to prop up their economies.  No, they are manufacturing the consumables Western economies got too lazy and/or greedy to make themselves, outsourcing jobs offshore to Asia in order to exploit virtual slave labour and maximise profits.

It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, and for a time the Western economies held the balance of power, but now the Asian manufacturers are licking their lips and laughing all the way to the bank.  What's more, the Western economies are unlikely to ever claw their was back into manufacturing.  First off, they no longer control the market, and secondly, they have let the infrastructure go to ruin and would near have to start from scratch... an expense most Western economies could not absorb in this day and age.  Neither scenario is conducive to successfully re-entering the manufacturing markets, and thus Asian economies will continue to flourish as the US economy continues to go into decline.  Gone are the days of exponential growth and booming US industries.

We've been heralding this change for the last 20 - 30 years, and Western economists and businessmen either didn't care or were too stupid to see the writing on the wall. I tend to believe the former, that greed and turning over a fast buck is the chief cause of Western economies going guts up.  Just as Rome's greed saw it spreading its resources too thinly on the ground to maintain order at home, so too will the US fall as the world's dominant political and economic power.  Maybe Washington should be renamed 'New Rome'... for all its efforts in foreign control, empire building by stealth and sticking its nose in elsewhere when it would have been better to have stayed at home.

And finally, while war and the US war machine has generated huge profits for the US, maintaining a huge and expensive war machine is contributing to its downfall and probable bankruptcy.  Rome, too, amassed a huge and expensive war machine to assert and maintain its dominance over the empire, and while that may have served its needs to begin with, it became a liability... an expensive toy for the emperor that eventually bankrupted the nation.  With most of his troops overseas, the emperor could not contain the civil unrest at home... and the rest is history.   The next great empire to fall was that of Great Britain's.  Again, greed caused GB to spread its resources too thinly on the ground to maintain order throughout and thus it fell... now it's the US' turn.

Sad... but true.

Just as well you have exceptional hearing, then.

Can't say as I've ever seen a pair of human legs carry somebody so far so fast in such a short [blink of an eye] space of time.

Nope, Speedy Gonzales doesn't have a patch on you, me old mate.

Starkers is right on the money, comment #32. Lets see the naysayers dispute that. Most of which is common knowledge anyway.

[    ] <- *in brackets the hole in the air left after doc engaged warp drive.

I've been waiting all my life to see/hear that!

And now I have, I wish in part I were wrong.... because the innocent are always hurt the most when the economy of greed collapses.

Um, you sure 'bout that?  Looks more to me like yer left yer bum hole behind in your haste to escape.

I agree, starkers has good aim. I also would again like to thank Elana for pointing all the sheep to the Wolff. Why does the spell check here state the banksters is not spelled correct? I love that term.

Richard Wolff: Why the Economic Crisis Deepens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n30zO0ABFqc

Back to topic.
I gave that image search thing a try and holy cow, my grandfather came up as Jim Morrison . Have to try a few more, that gave me the chuckles but it did also find the original I posted and lost the link to long ago.

Yeah, just so long as when I get my eye in I don't need my trigger finger to scratch.

Another reason NOT to trust Google

Yes, the "open and transparent" company is refusing to send its top 2 executives to give evidence at a Senate Committee hearing.

It seems various concerns want Google to fess up and/or face the music for sending out fleets of cars in several countries to collect unsecured Wi-Fi data.

Personally, I'd like to see some gonads rolling on the floor over that one... and the upper echelon at Google all singing soprano if not high alto.

Starkers,  you are right!    (even about that 'other ' thing)... whatever it is....    (whistles...while looking nonchalantly in the other direction)

myfist0  I am truly happy you liked doc wolff ... 

I'm always right... 'cept when the missus tells me [95% of the time] that I'm wrong.

About the gonads rolling about on the floor?  Yeah, it would make for a kinky game of marbles, wouldn't it?

Seriously, though, the world is a much sadder place because of greed... the fact that over 90% of personal wealth lies with less than 1% of the total population.  While there are some high end businessmen, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, for example, who contribute back to the community through various charitable works and donations, too many wealthy entrepreneurs are hording trillions in personal wealth yet are doing nothing constructive with it, other than let it collect obscene amounts of interest.  Nah, I'd hate to be wealthy like that.  I mean, what would be the point... can't take it with you, right?