[jeffkrol]

Other Lessons Learned From The Credit Crisis: The Trail Of Crumbs - Seeking Alpha

Who is complicit to this credit disaster? Pretty much everyone, it would seem, from politicians, lobbyists, regulators, banks and all the way down the food chain to the homeowners themselves.

Whole article, while a bit out of "agreement" w/ me is good food for thought...............he does take a few "liberties" on the orig:

Lessons From 5 Years Of Economic Crisis - Seeking Alpha

So, again, what have we learned in the last 5 years?

Hopefully, this crisis has forced more of us to better understand the monetary system. See my paper on the monetary system in case you haven’t.
Private debt matters!
Autonomous currency issuers don’t “run out of money”. I.e., public debt is different than private debt!
Being an autonomous currency issuer matters. This highlights a key flaw in Europe’s monetary design.
Some government policies can have a distorting effect when misunderstood.
Government is a tool created by us and for us. It’s not always bad!

Anyhow, understanding all of this, it’s crystal clear that when the private sector shuts down due to a massive debt bubble, that there is only one entity that can fill this void. Remember, the economic system is a lot like the human body. When the “flow” shuts off the system dies. So when the “flow” died in 2009 you had two options. You could attach the artificial heart or you could let the system go and just hope it recovered. Many countries attached the artificial heart in the form of government spending. You see, the government in the USA can always keep the “flow” going. That is, they can always tax or harness the domestic banking system to spend money into the economy (the US government can’t run out of money due to the institutional design of the monetary system). This keeps the “flow” going. Granted, the government’s “flow” isn’t always ideal, but at a time like 2009, anything is better than nothing because nothing is certain to cause death.

I’m a capitalist through a through. But a good capitalist must also understand the system we’ve designed and how that system can be good and bad. And there are times, like 2008, when capitalists are powerless to fix the problems that could cause even greater long-term problems for them if an outside entity doesn’t help. I like to say that capitalism makes socialism possible. But 2009 was a rare instance where socialism made capitalism possible. And the USA is better off for it.

[jeffkrol]

6 Wall Street blogs you should be reading - Page 2 - MarketWatch

Cullen Roche, Pragmatic Capitalism: Roche is true to his blog’s name. Pragmatism might as well be his middle name. Read more on Roche’s Pragmatic Capitalism.

“The website developed during the crisis due to what I believe has become an obvious misunderstanding by the general public with regards to the macroeconomy, public policy and financial markets,” Roche told me. “The website’s primary purpose has always been to better inform the public about the way our monetary system, the economy and financial markets operate. It’s an educational resource before all else.”

Even seasoned Wall Street pros can get something valuable out of Roche’s musings. Read an example: What have we learned from the last 5 years?

Kenny Polcari, managing director of ICAP Corps. LLC, said: “I read him, and I do like his stuff. His ideas are well-thought-out.”

When you read Roche’s blog, you learn how the world works. One of his strengths is that he doesn’t write his posts in a pedantic manner. He puts across his ideas in clear, easy-to-decipher language.

Many bloggers want to make themselves the central figures in a piece by shooting their mouths off or attacking their subjects’ character or ability. By doing so, they can attract attention for themselves. Not Roche, though. He shows respect for the people he is writing about — while making his point.

On Oct. 16, for example: “The Fed’s position as protector of the banking realm is already controversial enough. It’s one thing to have the banking system control the money supply through our market based system, but a whole different matter to hand over control of the U.S. money supply to 12 unelected guys who may or may not be qualified to be in that room to begin with.”

HR2990...........