nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> You can't detach antimonopoly action by government from political
> considerations, and certainly the Bush administration has been
> extremely friendly to all types of business (most of whom are big
> contributors). So a change in Washington could mean a change for
> Microsoft. Whether it would be enough of a change to bring a return
> of the Jackson-style proceedings, personally I doubt. Big money
> counts for too much in Washington, and I don't see much change in that
> unless we have a new Depression.
Who knows, that could be in the cards yet. The whole sub-prime
mortgage fiasco is not done shaking value out of the equity markets.
There is probably another trillion dollars or more that could
evaporate as some seriously leveraged hedge funds and asset backed
securities implode in 2008. Right now the worst of it has been
held off with just sweeping the mess under the rug by assigning
estimated values to various assets, values bare no relation to real
market values. As more mortgages default and the real value of
those assets are exposed, that bubble will pop.
This is on top of a weakening dollar from massive federal spending
and trade deficits. The Fed has held interest rates down to shore
up the stock market, but that can only go on so long. We need to
attract buyers for our debt, and that takes higher interest rates.
That, combined with a cratering dollar spells runaway inflation
and serious reduction in business expansion.
I want to believe we have enough safeguards in our economic system
that we can hold off a Depression and just suffer through a rather
bad recession... but wanting it doesn't make it so. You might be
right though, if we did have another Depression type collapse, it
might wake up the slumbering masses enough to actually care and
participate in the political system. The New Deal was essentially
brought to life through such pressures. The progressive income tax
could never have come about without the sort of populist backlash
you describe.
Thad
--
Yeah, I drank the Open Source cool-aid... Unlike the other brand, it had
all the ingredients on the label.
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