economic meltdown

Private (non-government) debt of six nations as a percentage of GDP from 1952 (source; click to enlarge).by Gaius PubliusA quick-hits piece, just to put the idea on your radar.

Aggregate private household debt, 1990-2014. Consumer debt is measured on the left-hand scale; mortgage debt on the right-hand scale (source).by Gaius Publius"In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits.

Percentage of S&P junk bonds and leveraged loans considered "distressed" (click to enlarge)by Gaius Publius We know that there will be another economic "big one" like the crisis of 2008. All of the pieces are in place — Wall Street greed and literal pathology, the even greater size of too-big-to-fail institutions, a literal get-out-of-jail free card that almost blesses continued financial fraud, and the like.

As the value of money rises, the value of things goes down, and vice versa (illustration by Constance Heffron, Happy Days, 1951, Allyn and Bacon; source).by Gaius PubliusWhy are the world's largest corporations sitting on trillions in cash?

This painting sold in 2013 for $142 million (source). Are the very very wealthy driving an asset bubble?

"[T]here is more pain to come, but there always was. The decision was made in 2008 and 2009 to not allow an actual recovery and to protect the rich at all costs. There was a cost; it has been paid for the last six years, and this is yet and simply another one of those costs.

The sainted Ronald Reagan bequeathed Americans the right to revel in their ignorance, bigotry, and savagery even as they were being so carefully lined up in the bent-over position."What [William Lazonick] has uncovered is a shift in corporate conduct that transformed the U.S. economy -- for the worse. From the end of World War II through the late 1970s, he writes, major U.S.

Awww, isn't this adorable? Big Al 'n' Big Ben, together! Are they on the clock? Holy bank balance, Batman! Or maybe it's like one of those glossy National Geographic photos of a lion or tiger mama tending to one of her cuddly little offspring.

Daily Kos caption: "Ka-CHING!!!"

"I can't think of a time when a party's economic doctrine has been so completely divorced from reality."-- Paul Krugman, in his NYT column today, "Phony Fear Factor"by Ken"So Republican assertions about what ails the economy are pure fantasy," Paul writes in his column, "at odds with all the evidence.