Halarious Explanations of Financial Meltdown

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This is absolutely fucking awesome explanation of current financial situation!!!

THIS IS A MUST SEE!!!

KRAKR, YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/187.html

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Here's an amusing little cartoon:

Here is a quote from the maker of this video:

In 2002 I was commissioned to produce a video for United Financial Consumers (http://www.ufc.ca), a small organization dedicated to defending credit customers from the predatory practices of banks. I taped a 5-hour seminar explaining an innovative strategy for reclaiming the equity banks defraud us out of when we sign for a so-called “loan”. I prefaced this rather abstruse lecture material by telling “The Goldsmith’s Tale” in animation form. Entitled “Money as Debt”, it was my first full animation project.

Other monetary reformers saw this original “Money as Debt” cartoon and approached me about using my animation as part of an information package being sent to municipal politicians, urging municipalities to demand interest-free loans from our publicly owned Canadian central bank, the Bank of Canada.

The Canadian Action Party, a federal political party devoted to monetary reform posted it on their website.

Two gentlemen from the American Monetary Institute in the USA also saw the animation. One described my cartoon as “far and away the best explanation of fractional reserve banking” he had ever seen. They requested that they be able to use it for their educational purposes as well.

Money as Debt
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

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If you purchased $1,000 of Delta Airlines stock 1 year ago, you would have $49.00 today.
If you purchased $1,000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have $33.00 today.
If you purchased $1,000 of Lehman Brothers stock 1 year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer 1 year ago, drank all the beer, returned the aluminum cans for a recycling refund, you would have  $214.00. 

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.  A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!


Makes you proud to be an American!

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click for full size

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The Harder They Fall, the More I Smile

I’m not the only one who feels this way. I recently received a note from Dr. Michael Stone, a psychiatrist in Manhattan who is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. “In America it’s every boy’s dream to one day become a millionaire,” he wrote, adding that the subprime mortgage craze and debacle have “made that dream come true for more people than we could ever have imagined before.” He continued: “Only yesterday, it seems, Maurice R. Greenberg, ex-C.E.O. of A.I.G., saw the value of his holdings in his former company change — in one day — from $15.8 billion to $911 million. Where else but in America can even a billionaire become a millionaire?”

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The Imminent Collapse Of Global Markets Is No Reason To Skimp On Four-Season Gutter Protection

I know you're worried about the economy. Hell, we all are. You don't need to be some kind of financial guru to know that things are looking pretty grim. Banks are folding, unemployment is on the rise, and people are worried about their retirement plans. Sure, it's rough right now, but we're a nation of fighters. We've been through this before and we'll get through it again, with our heads held high and our gutters protected year-round.

Because no matter how far the stock market plunges or how many financial institutions go bankrupt overnight, there's still no excuse for letting your gutters become clogged with unsightly debris.

I've been in the business of selling high- quality, four-season gutter protection for almost 20 years now, and I've never seen anything like this financial crisis. The U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse, threatening to take the economies of every industrialized nation down with it, and what's worse, your gutters look like you're growing a garden in there.

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Just stop paying your mortgage (San Diego Union Tribune)

If you are a mortgage holder who is either struggling with crushing payments, bitter for having overpaid for your home during the bubble, or who has extravagantly refinanced when prices were rising, the government's landmark $700 billion bailout package has an important message for you: stop making your mortgage payments . . . immediately. Furthermore, if you believe that with some planning and sacrifice you may be able to meet your mortgage obligations, the government's message is clear: relax, don't bother.

Nobody likes foreclosure, least of all politicians. The new law clearly indicates that the government will make major efforts to reduce foreclosures through “term extensions, rate reductions and principal write-downs” of the troubled mortgages that it buys from the private sector. In other words, your new landlord will bend over backward to keep you in your home. The legislation telegraphs this by including a provision that extends until 2013 the exclusion of loan reductions from taxable income.

When a financial institution holds a mortgage, homeowners must live with the fear of foreclosure. Private institutions only have obligations to shareholders. In the case of a defaulting borrower, they will look to recover as much of their principal as possible. If foreclosure is their best option, they will take it in a heartbeat.

The government has no such obligations. Its only goal is to keep voters happy. After supposedly bailing out the fat cats on Wall Street, no politician wants to be accused of evicting struggling families. Once you understand this, all of your anxiety should melt away. Why pay your mortgage if foreclosure is off the table, and if you know that lower payments, and possibly a reduced loan amount, would result? A tarnished a credit rating is a small price to pay for such a benefit.

If your mortgage does become the property of Uncle Sam, the growingly popular impulse to “just walk away” should be replaced by “just stay and stop paying.” No one will throw you out. After a few months, or years, of living payment free, you will get a call from a motivated government agent eager to adjust your loan into something affordable.

To bolster your bargaining position it will help to be able to claim poverty. As a result, if you have any savings, spend it soon, before they call. Buy a bigger TV, a new wardrobe, or better yet, take a vacation. After the hardship of spending all of your refi cash, you probably deserve it. If you have any guilt just remember, Washington argues that consumer spending is the best way to stimulate the economy. Living beyond your means is a patriotic duty.