hrrmmmm. good read that. tho bowie was just doing what was popular at the time. the article appears to clarify very well what happened over the past 10 years economics wise.

Funny, interesting, but bollocks. Greedy bankers and a lack of regulation did it.

That article is dumb. Bowie didn't secureitize his back catalogue until 1997 but real estate mortgages have been securitized since at least the 1970's.

Also, lack of regulation did not casue the current problem...too much regulation is to blame.

I think the article is funny, and has some sort of indirect truth to it. The fact is, blaming it all on deregulation is not fair (and blaming it on over-regulation, I think, is absurd)... but blaming the current situation on perhaps a culture of impatient profiteering and vicious competition is more reasonable. If there was no need or desire to constantly one-up your competition and bend the rules whenever possible, we would not be in such trouble today. Greed plays a role, but in order to really succeed, the system is currently set up so you have to be greedy. There is no choice in the matter. Bowie was, what I would call, smart. He found a legal way to make a bundle quickly. That's what they're all trying to do. Hey, if it's legal, how can you call it greedy? Just a thought... Now back to the Stones?

This makes complete sense.
The banks have always turned to Bowie in good times and bad for financial advice...

Damn him for doing this. Damn him.

As you can see he invested the money of his back catalogue in
his new front teeth.

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... but blaming the current situation on perhaps a culture of impatient profiteering and vicious competition is more reasonable.

Wow. That has to be one of the silliest, most naive things ever stated on this site. Without profiteering and competition there would be no innovation and no advancement in fields such as medicine, technology, science, finance and engineering, just to name a few. If you think intelligent and capable people would be motivated to work hard out of the goodness of their hearts then perhaps you need to put down the Communist Manifesto and get back to reality.

Silly? It is certainly true that I'm no economist! But there is no doubt, while healthy competition is essential for healthy capitalism, things got way out of hand during the last 20 years. Now it seems we have a democratic system dictated more by corporate power than by the people. You're absolutely right, all this competition has brought prices down, and has given us some fine innovation... but where do we go now? In order for prices to stay low (and profits to keep coming) rules are being bent, and often broken... until things got out of control. Now what do we do? Sure there are all kinds of new meds out there, but who pays for them? Employers, who then have to drop employees to cover the costs... so who benefits?

Naive, maybe. Like I said, I'm no expert by a long-shot. But silly? Profits and competition define a free market, but it was the adjectives I used that were the key words. When you don't play fair, a free market doesn't work. I want more emphasis to be on quality production (same with the Stones, dammit!!) for the sake of a healthy community and less emphasis on misleading the masses into thinking they need things they can't afford. More patience in profit-making. Less emphasis on immediate growth, more on investment in education and greener energy/ transportation futures. That's where the jobs ought to be!! Ok I'll shut up now. I'm sorry. Sorry, BV. Sorry everybody. I couldn't help it. Long live the Rolling Stones.

What has caused the financial mess is not any one thing. Banking deregulation, equal opportunity lending (there is no such thing!!) people who do not have the means to pay a loan back should not get one. This is what killed the housing market. Corporate greed and sheer stupidity. W (fool though he is) told congress to look at the way things were going 14 times and they chose not to. The entire govenrment and financial sector are responsible and now they want more of my money to bail everybody out. Its fu**ing insane. We just gave congress 700 BILLION dollars to bail things out now president-elect Messiah Obama wants to pump in another 800 BILLION dollars. Pelosi, Reid and Obama if you though Bush was bad wait until you see the shiite these people pull!!!