1) Approximately how much real value has dropped out of the economy with this housing mess we’re in? I’m talking about the bottom line, which really ought to be just the debts that won’t be paid when people can’t cover their mortgages. We’re currently shuffling the chairs around, but I’m curious how much the banks actually lost. My totally uneducated guess is $6 Trillion. That’s about $20k lost by each American, which feels close enough to be accurate.<\/p>\n
One benefit of having this number in hand is that we’ll be able to tell when the “unexpected losses” might be expected to let up. Once the banks write off a total of $6T in losses, then we can settle down and invest again. Until then, it’s screw and be screwed because there are still chairs to be taken away.<\/p>\n
2) If the price of oil were controlled by supply and demand, approximately where might it end up? I ask this one because that’s the price point that the non-oil based energy folks should be aiming for. I’m curious how one might do this math.<\/p>\n
3) Does anyone really believe that the “DC Madam,” Deborah Palfrey, actually just packed her stuff and killed herself in a shed in Florida? Damn. Now I *really* want to know her client list.<\/p>\n
— UPDATE — <\/p>\n
The headlines that I’m reading about Palfrey imply that her “never spending a day in prison” comments were somehow linked to suicidal thoughts. Here’s the quote in full:<\/p>\n
“I’m sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I’m shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever,” Palfrey told ABC last year when she released phone records that revealed some of her clients. “Not for a second. I’ll bring every last one of them in if necessary.”<\/em><\/p>\n That’s not a meek little “I’d rather die,” that’s a full throated “I’ll take all you bastards down with me.” <\/p>\n I find it disingenuous that a paper as reputable as the Washington Post would head their article with “`D.C. madam’ who vowed not to go to prison kills herself”.<\/p>\n I shouldn’t be allowed to read the internet late at night. I get all agitated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1) Approximately how much real value has dropped out of the economy with this housing mess we’re in? I’m talking about the bottom line, which really ought to be just the debts that won’t be paid when people can’t cover their mortgages. We’re currently shuffling the chairs around, but I’m curious how much the banks . . . → Read More: Questions for the world<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}