Can A Bad Economy Be Good For Us?

I thought this was a good post by Justin.

A bad economy probably isn't good for us to half the degree that a 'good' economy can be bad for us. The key question to ask is "What are the people who are getting filthy rich contributing in return?" If it is something of value, then everything's fine. If it's piles of debt and empty promises, then perhaps the economy is a little TOO good and needs to be revisited.

It isn't that a bad economy is good for us. Its that the cure for a bad economy can be worse than the disease.

True story: I got my 51 yo female friend to stop moaning about how no one will hire a 51 yo female and drill sergeant-ed her ass off the couch and got her to stop crying and start sending out her resume. She got a lot of rejection(age probably), but eventually got some callbacks including one promising job opportunity. However, she told me she wasn't going to the interview because she probably wouldn't get the job anyway, she's too old, her car won't be able to drive around the state as the job requires, blah, blah, blah. I told her I would cease being her friend if she didn't go, she went and got the job. Big money, full benefits, 3 weeks vacay and a commpany car. She calls me yesterday telling me how great deflation is and all the cool stuff she bought dirt cheap...the same day my parents told me they might lose the house. So, two sides to every coin and all...

This sentence sums up why I don't regularly read Fox's blog:
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I've never really picked a side, though, and I still can't.
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Every time I try to read his stuff I get bored by the endless morass of equivalencies that crop up.

Deflation would be great if the utility companies, cable, insurance company got with the program.

OT
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KT
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It looks like Obama has been dragged into the Israeli propaganda machine. I wonder if this will mean he will HAVE to say something.
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050940.html
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Barak also cited a comment made by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who visited Sderot during his election campaign earlier this year.
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"Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it," Barack told the plenum.

It's a strange argument to make, to have let LTCM go. Frankly, I think that's a foolish 'what if' supposition to make. The amount of leveraging involved in LTCM's trades was massive, and would have jeopardized the system. ("When Genius Failed" by Roger Lowenstein is an excellent recounting of the events.) More than the actions that 'saved' the company's trades (the company itself went kaput), the choices made afterward, particularly by Greenspan and Bush on macro policy, really sowed the seeds of the current debacle. They never really learned any lessons from it. Some judicious humility and foresight at that time by those two would have tendered a very different result.
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That said, with close to complete meltdown of our economic systems, it does open the way for massive restructuring of the framework, from how things function to the way things are regulated. Such radical reform would not have been politically acceptable before. Complete free markets, the foundation of the laissez faire Republican core, have been debunked and those proponents have been silenced.
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Last month, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, said, "This economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle. It represents a reset. It's an emotional, social, economic reset." By that, he's saying that business will not continue on as usual, nor is this downturn something we will just wait out, until the pendulum swings back to prosperity. Instead, it's a starting over, a chance to begin again with some fundamental changes in the financial system. He continued,"People who understand that will prosper. Those who don't will be left behind."

Coulda, woulda, shoulda. How do we (the country as a whole) get out of the financial mess we are currently in?

well okay, if by "us" you mean the society as a whole. Definitely not good for many of "us" individuals. Losing job, health benefits, house, etc. has few redeeming features.

Who does the suffering? I wish the bottom 50% didn't always seem to take it on the chin.