the problem with The Daily isn't the business model. 99c an issue or 40 bucks a year is a pretty sound pricing plan, however, what the author fails to mention is that similar plans for paid content works in other contexts, and will work for online journalism. Having to compete with free isn't difficult, it's having actual, content to want to go to from week to week to week.
Had this been another media outlet that might be able to command money for it's content, this would be a different conversation. However, I fail to see how Rupert Murdoch could assemble any team of content producers who could make this venture worth while. I often see Rupert Murdoch's name bandied about but he's the behind the scenes business geek. He's not an author. He doesn't produce content. Where's the content?
I love the iPad, don't get me wrong, however, I don't see how that and that alone are what's going to sell The Daily.
You're describing a world view that simply is not supported by reality, and dripping with a level of cynicism and possibly paranoia that is incredibly unfortunate.
Did you not read that I said that Austrian economics can work?
However, the external costs are simply too high for modern societies to bear. We have evidence from history of this happening.
If we completely deregulated the markets, even with competition, this doesn't guarantee food would be safe, it wouldn't guarantee that products wouldn't blow up if we tried to use them, it wouldn't guarantee that medicines would have any real efficacy at all(Hint: Most of our western quack nostrums eg: homeopathy, chiropractic, etc come from largely deregulated periods of our culture), while yes in life, there are no guarantees, it's hard to vote with your wallet when your car decided to blow up and remove both of your legs because the manufacturer decided that the market could bear a %5 to 10 rate of catastrophic failure because there would be no tort law to have them see any consequences for their profit motivated decision, and it would be incredibly difficult for them to get bad press if they also happened to own a few media outlets. It would also be VERY difficult for them to really get any sort of market based reprocussions if they also happened to own a few online outlets too; and since we're completely deregulated there goes Net Neutrality, which means they can buy up the sufficient infrastructure to make sure that instead of going to Jalopnik or Top Gear (assuming of course, they didn't play ball and also go along with covering up this story for lucrative advertising revenue), you got redirected to their online outlets instead.
As far as that Orion piece goes, you're so full of paranoid Alex Jones bullshit that it hurts me to think that people think this way. So what? GE invested in Orion. GE also invests everywhere else too. Big whoop.
Money is an abstract concept. It always has been. The value of 1 unit of gold to how many ever units of bread, water, coca cola or shaving cream or whatever you want to buy is completely arbitrary. Yes, gold has value on many levels; useful conductor in microelectronics, it's shiny and makes pretty jewelry, it makes Goldschlager easy to look at. But is, "Eh, whatever." the real basis for an economic system? You've got several factors that make Gold completely useless as a unit of trade, but most importantly, and undeniably, is that Gold is at a limited supply, and populations aren't. Eventually as populations rise and grow, the same amount of gold isn't going to trade for the same units of marble cake or whatever. Given in the 70's, this, along with other constraints of the gold standard were tying our hands economically, it made a certain amount of sense for Tricky Dick to take us off that immature, obsolete and useless standard. Our economies aren't run by gold anymore. We're not measuring our given wealth based on how much gold we have. It's more likely we're going to measure it by how many goods such as TVs, cars, and dildos we're producing, buying, selling, exporting and importing and in what ratios. So, why not make the whole system fiat anyway? It's more flexible and realistic than Gold, not to mention more representative of what is actually going on inside of the borders of a given nation. The difference between Greece and America is that unlike Greece, we're exporting Apple iPods, Ford Focuses and Starbucks Coffee franchises.
Yes, we're no longer manufacturing those things, but this is an argument FOR Government involvement in the market. If you take a look at the iPod Classic, $250 bucks right? Well, an interesting piece Here suggests that "Fair Trade" or locally sourced iPod would cost only $307. While that's over a %20 jump in cost, the externality is that if we brought back manufacturing here as a matter of corporate regulation, wages would also rise like hell, making that price
What I've noticed is that people who bitch about closed and inflexible just means that devices can't do things the way THEY want the machine to work. Which is fine. Everyone has their preferences, that's how life is.
However, there's a whole lot of hubris and a whole lot of arrogance with that position. It's close minded and doesn't celebrate the here and now. Paradigms have changed in a huge way. Giant VIMRC files have given way to modern IDEs. Virtual terminals have given away to multiple XShell sessions. Having to support that paradigm cruft IS bloat. I'm happy to see some of it going away. Even if I still love vi.
Or you could wait for the games to come out. Tekken 5: DR on PS3 looked better than Tekken 5: DR Arcade, and it got a PSP release first.
Also, reducing inputs isn't dumbing down games, it's getting smarter about development. A game isn't fun if I'm scrambling to read the manual every 5 minutes to make sure I'm doing something right.
yes, I'm not denying we're in bad shape, but the mere existence of the Fed isn't the problem, I'm saying that the useless boobs running the Fed are. Everything was fine until Lee Atwater and Ronald Reagan turned the Republican Party evil.
Do you even know what a URV is and why it was necessary?
The US isn't hyperinflating just yet. We still produce goods, services and have a real economy. You Peter Schiffites have been predicting doom for the Economy since the John Birch Society's heyday and now that things are bad, you're claiming victory.
I regularly drink at bars. I usually don't go hog wild and all out as often as I want because I have to drive home. If I had a reliable indicator of when I'm good versus when I'm not, I'd be more likely to drink a little more. The way they describe the device, it would be *very* discreet, and no one would have to know.
Whether it should be *mandatory* or not, that's a different story, and unfortunately with no simple answer.
Actually, you could argue that the tearing down of Napster as a P2P network and rebuilt as a legitimate source of music proved that older models of music distribution worked, and in that vein, we now have Amazon MP3, iTunes, Pandora, etc and that wouldn't have happened with out the litigation against Napster.
the GB didn't have to compete against real competitors. The Lynx, the Game Gear, et al. had a lousy lack luster game line up compared to the PSP's in relative terms. There were nearly no must-haves in the GG's lineup, or Lynx's. PSP? I could name a few. Not to mention the business model that Sony has is way superior to Atari or Sega's. Given that Sony's still making hardware.
maybe it's just my source of media, but, Rachel Maddow did a piece on the situation on the ground and is continuing coverage with various sources on the ground.
I'd say NBC news is "established media." They have sources on the ground in Cairo. I'm pretty sure Reuters and AP have sources on the ground as well.
Then again, it could be. It's clear they're out to present a preconceived narrative, it's hard not to try to see it, then again this is a pretty cut and dry story. I don't think the rightwing noisemachine has figured out what it's spin is going to be. on one hand, yes, military interests dictate we support who's supporting us, on the other hand, if revolution comes in Egypt and the new Government does play ball, then why spin?
This chart is very handy. This proves my Reagan-bashing, left wing, bleeding heart liberal point.
As companies and firms decide to start screwing their working class front-line employees, the growth, in constant dollars, goes down, and in 1980, it actually gets worse. These are years that the Fed was IN existence. There's more to the economy than just the damn Fed.
Don't blame the Fed for the market deciding to screw the middle class so that way CEOs and CxOs can afford to buy another damn yacht and a private jet.
Further more, what does this have to do with cutting the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the FAA, the FCC or the EPA?
There are many externalities you either refuse to see, or largely you don't care about disenfranchised marginalized people who can not get by with out some sort of societal support. Fuck those people eh? They're making it tough for the privileged, upper crust elites to screw their competition, take monopoly status, screw the working class and make another pile of money they're entitled to.
I really don't care about your comments because you have already shown what your approach to my comment is - you'll be doing ad hominem BS, but here is another fact at you:
S&P came out today, downgraded Japan's credit to their fourth highest rating, to AA-, same as they give to China.
Now you are going to tell me 'Ayn Rand', I'll throw this nonsense back right into your face. Japan has a large debt, which is payable to the population of Japan. Citizens of Japan hold Japanese debt. Japan also has a Trillion dollars worth of US Treasuries. Japanese people have huge savings.
China has no debt. They hold 3 Trillion in foreign exchange reserve.
USA has no ability to pay, yet it's rated highest among its creditors.
Creditors of USA have lower rating than the debtor that US is and US has higher credit rating.
This is all BS. Just like the commissions that report these nonsensical 'findings', same with these credit rating agencies. Gov't is a bunch of lying thieves and the companies they work with are a bunch of monopolistic lying thieves, I am pointing this out and you attack me based on what? So I have no more interest in your nonsense.
What you're talking about is the same thing I'm talking about, which is that our financial system is completely fucked and there's a good chance it might all collapse unless some drastic action's taken.
However, given the Fed's existence for the better part of half a century, and the intervening years of relative economic stability, it's pretty hard to blame the Fed's actual existence. Central reserve banking -works-... When it's being helmed by people who aren't complete idiots. Cutting the fed makes the entire financial system incredibly difficult in more turbulent times. Your proposal to right the ship by cutting Federal programs is like trying to save a sinking ship by washing the dishes.
My solution would go to reagan era tax levels for the super wealthy, cut corporate taxes but at the same time close the many loopholes that keep our most successful and income generating corporations from paying taxes and invest in the debt, education, infrastructure, and what have you. You know, all those liberal hippie dippie ideas like making sure bridges don't fall apart, that poor people can go to college or see a doctor, or old people don't have to worry about someone raiding their pension fund or their stock broker completely screwing them on a bad deal that wipes out their savings, or hey, maybe making sure that crime is low and it's safe to breathe the air and that the bills are paid on time. But what the hell do I know? I'm just a tax and spend liberal.
The dollar losing 98% of its value since the Fed was established, how did that work out for you? Is it so much better with the Fed and dollar falling, than it was in the century prior to the Fed and dollar rising and prices falling instead?
Because wages ALSO went up(typically, before the mangling of the economy by the Reagan-era goons; seriously; Paul Provenza said it best, "Bush's term in office means a lot of liberals have to apologize to Nixon.").
Brazil showed that it doesn't matter what number is on the price tag or on the bill, as long as you have enough of them being circulated into the hands of the populace via their paychecks, your economy can be stable.
I hope you have a lot of THINGS stowed away, because money is quickly becoming worthless and the lenders (you know, Chinese and such) are finding out what the Fed is doing, and they are suffering from inflation of prices, because their economy is actually growing and producing, and production economies suffer inflation by seeing prices go up rapidly, while stagnating and dying economies do not CARE for SOME time, do not see prices go up, especially USA, since it exports its inflation since the USD is reserve (not for much longer).
Except this isn't in the exact nature of central reserve banking. This is the result of incompetent boobs running foreign policy, trade and very incompetent and heartless people running business concerns(Who needs livable wages at the bottom? I need a new solid gold credenza. Gold plating is so passe).
USA had the most economic growth in late 19 century, you are confused.
[citation needed]
Also, it was in that period that the gap between the rich and poor were at it's highest, abuses of the system BY the rich against the poor were so absurd and evil I can't even fathom how we got out of it(Union busting, child labor, scrip, ghettos, no regulation of food, drugs or medicine).
I'll quote the Andrew Shepherd.
We've got serious problems, and we need serious people.
Unfortunately, libertarianism isn't serious, and doesn't address the real issues. The Fed isn't the problem, it's Bernanke, it's Greenspan, it's Geithner. Blaming the Fed is like blaming matches and gasoline on arson rather than pyromania, malice and greed.
The Fed's ran by incompetent boobs. The Fed itself isn't a bad thing. In fact, before Reaganomics, the Fed was largely a benign entity. Now that the "Greed is Good" crowd has taken over, the Fed's being used to screw everyone except the hyper wealthy.
Getting rid of Government programs would only make things way more difficult. You're proposing that because businesses are greedy and businesses manipulated the fed, we should put ALL OF OUR FAITH AND TRUST in the hands of the same Business interests that screwed us.
Sorry. No. We tried that already in the late 19th century. Between Eisenhower and Reagan we showed that a semi-free market works. Reagan then broke that system.
The problem isn't the Fed, or the "Free Market", it's that there's the innate human nature to try to play the system, any system, into giving a leg up over competition and fairness isn't even a variable in this calculation.
I mean, the problems largely stem from scuzzy bankers and brokers buying and selling what they knew was garbage, along with problems with the fed's lousy idea of what an interest rate is, etc.
It's like finding out that the Minnesota bridge collapse wasn't the fault of computers either. No big deal.
The World Ends with You would've been a much different and maybe weaker game on a single screen console. Although between the touch screen and the touch pad on the back I hope the NGP brings us a sequel to TWEWY.
Slashdot Mirror
And the Ipad is a not a mass-market device (too pricey, too limited)
7.33 million iPads.
The iPad IS the mass-market right now.
the problem with The Daily isn't the business model. 99c an issue or 40 bucks a year is a pretty sound pricing plan, however, what the author fails to mention is that similar plans for paid content works in other contexts, and will work for online journalism. Having to compete with free isn't difficult, it's having actual, content to want to go to from week to week to week.
Had this been another media outlet that might be able to command money for it's content, this would be a different conversation. However, I fail to see how Rupert Murdoch could assemble any team of content producers who could make this venture worth while. I often see Rupert Murdoch's name bandied about but he's the behind the scenes business geek. He's not an author. He doesn't produce content. Where's the content?
I love the iPad, don't get me wrong, however, I don't see how that and that alone are what's going to sell The Daily.
Mr. Murdoch, who's writing for this damn thing?!
D-VHS - digital home movie format killed by DVD, though it carried a higher quality picture
oh the irony of A VHS format being beaten by a format with worse picture quality...
You're describing a world view that simply is not supported by reality, and dripping with a level of cynicism and possibly paranoia that is incredibly unfortunate.
Did you not read that I said that Austrian economics can work?
However, the external costs are simply too high for modern societies to bear. We have evidence from history of this happening.
If we completely deregulated the markets, even with competition, this doesn't guarantee food would be safe, it wouldn't guarantee that products wouldn't blow up if we tried to use them, it wouldn't guarantee that medicines would have any real efficacy at all(Hint: Most of our western quack nostrums eg: homeopathy, chiropractic, etc come from largely deregulated periods of our culture), while yes in life, there are no guarantees, it's hard to vote with your wallet when your car decided to blow up and remove both of your legs because the manufacturer decided that the market could bear a %5 to 10 rate of catastrophic failure because there would be no tort law to have them see any consequences for their profit motivated decision, and it would be incredibly difficult for them to get bad press if they also happened to own a few media outlets. It would also be VERY difficult for them to really get any sort of market based reprocussions if they also happened to own a few online outlets too; and since we're completely deregulated there goes Net Neutrality, which means they can buy up the sufficient infrastructure to make sure that instead of going to Jalopnik or Top Gear (assuming of course, they didn't play ball and also go along with covering up this story for lucrative advertising revenue), you got redirected to their online outlets instead.
As far as that Orion piece goes, you're so full of paranoid Alex Jones bullshit that it hurts me to think that people think this way. So what? GE invested in Orion. GE also invests everywhere else too. Big whoop.
Money is an abstract concept. It always has been. The value of 1 unit of gold to how many ever units of bread, water, coca cola or shaving cream or whatever you want to buy is completely arbitrary. Yes, gold has value on many levels; useful conductor in microelectronics, it's shiny and makes pretty jewelry, it makes Goldschlager easy to look at. But is, "Eh, whatever." the real basis for an economic system? You've got several factors that make Gold completely useless as a unit of trade, but most importantly, and undeniably, is that Gold is at a limited supply, and populations aren't. Eventually as populations rise and grow, the same amount of gold isn't going to trade for the same units of marble cake or whatever. Given in the 70's, this, along with other constraints of the gold standard were tying our hands economically, it made a certain amount of sense for Tricky Dick to take us off that immature, obsolete and useless standard. Our economies aren't run by gold anymore. We're not measuring our given wealth based on how much gold we have. It's more likely we're going to measure it by how many goods such as TVs, cars, and dildos we're producing, buying, selling, exporting and importing and in what ratios. So, why not make the whole system fiat anyway? It's more flexible and realistic than Gold, not to mention more representative of what is actually going on inside of the borders of a given nation. The difference between Greece and America is that unlike Greece, we're exporting Apple iPods, Ford Focuses and Starbucks Coffee franchises.
Yes, we're no longer manufacturing those things, but this is an argument FOR Government involvement in the market. If you take a look at the iPod Classic, $250 bucks right? Well, an interesting piece Here suggests that "Fair Trade" or locally sourced iPod would cost only $307. While that's over a %20 jump in cost, the externality is that if we brought back manufacturing here as a matter of corporate regulation, wages would also rise like hell, making that price
Just FYI, government is IMMORAL.
Okay. I'm done here.
Keynesian shamanism actually works.
So does Austrian shamanism.
It's just a matter of who do you want to poke at the end of the day with the burden of supporting the system? The wealthy or the poor?
The Fed prints money. They also destroy money in circulation. Using this principle, they control the supply and flow of money in the system.
Not everything was sunshine and daisies in the 70's, but, the economic system was ran by less incompetent dolts.
The market is ran by greedy, amoral, feckless, spineless, heartless, gutless trash. The Government is merely spineless.
Yes, but, let's face it, nethack's a self selecting group. It's not like Nethack's being introduced to the average gamer on a day to day basis
What I've noticed is that people who bitch about closed and inflexible just means that devices can't do things the way THEY want the machine to work. Which is fine. Everyone has their preferences, that's how life is.
However, there's a whole lot of hubris and a whole lot of arrogance with that position. It's close minded and doesn't celebrate the here and now. Paradigms have changed in a huge way. Giant VIMRC files have given way to modern IDEs. Virtual terminals have given away to multiple XShell sessions. Having to support that paradigm cruft IS bloat. I'm happy to see some of it going away. Even if I still love vi.
Or you could wait for the games to come out. Tekken 5: DR on PS3 looked better than Tekken 5: DR Arcade, and it got a PSP release first.
Also, reducing inputs isn't dumbing down games, it's getting smarter about development. A game isn't fun if I'm scrambling to read the manual every 5 minutes to make sure I'm doing something right.
"Real artists ship." -- Steve jobs.
As long as the mechanics are the same, who cares if the handheld has scaled down polygons or doesn't render at the same 1080p?
yes, I'm not denying we're in bad shape, but the mere existence of the Fed isn't the problem, I'm saying that the useless boobs running the Fed are. Everything was fine until Lee Atwater and Ronald Reagan turned the Republican Party evil.
Do you even know what a URV is and why it was necessary?
The US isn't hyperinflating just yet. We still produce goods, services and have a real economy. You Peter Schiffites have been predicting doom for the Economy since the John Birch Society's heyday and now that things are bad, you're claiming victory.
I regularly drink at bars. I usually don't go hog wild and all out as often as I want because I have to drive home. If I had a reliable indicator of when I'm good versus when I'm not, I'd be more likely to drink a little more. The way they describe the device, it would be *very* discreet, and no one would have to know.
Whether it should be *mandatory* or not, that's a different story, and unfortunately with no simple answer.
Let me pose this one question to you.
The Federal Reserve is going to be 98 years old.
If this collapse was inevitable, why did it take 98 years? Not 20? 30?
You DO realize that you're making the argument, "Since cars can crash into trees, it's inevitable that all cars are going to crash into trees" right?
Actually, you could argue that the tearing down of Napster as a P2P network and rebuilt as a legitimate source of music proved that older models of music distribution worked, and in that vein, we now have Amazon MP3, iTunes, Pandora, etc and that wouldn't have happened with out the litigation against Napster.
the GB didn't have to compete against real competitors. The Lynx, the Game Gear, et al. had a lousy lack luster game line up compared to the PSP's in relative terms. There were nearly no must-haves in the GG's lineup, or Lynx's. PSP? I could name a few. Not to mention the business model that Sony has is way superior to Atari or Sega's. Given that Sony's still making hardware.
maybe it's just my source of media, but, Rachel Maddow did a piece on the situation on the ground and is continuing coverage with various sources on the ground.
I'd say NBC news is "established media." They have sources on the ground in Cairo. I'm pretty sure Reuters and AP have sources on the ground as well.
I don't think it's *that* insidious.
Then again, it could be. It's clear they're out to present a preconceived narrative, it's hard not to try to see it, then again this is a pretty cut and dry story. I don't think the rightwing noisemachine has figured out what it's spin is going to be. on one hand, yes, military interests dictate we support who's supporting us, on the other hand, if revolution comes in Egypt and the new Government does play ball, then why spin?
right. Not nearly as fast as inflation and dollar falling.
See chart here.
This chart is very handy. This proves my Reagan-bashing, left wing, bleeding heart liberal point.
As companies and firms decide to start screwing their working class front-line employees, the growth, in constant dollars, goes down, and in 1980, it actually gets worse. These are years that the Fed was IN existence. There's more to the economy than just the damn Fed.
Don't blame the Fed for the market deciding to screw the middle class so that way CEOs and CxOs can afford to buy another damn yacht and a private jet.
Further more, what does this have to do with cutting the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the FAA, the FCC or the EPA?
There are many externalities you either refuse to see, or largely you don't care about disenfranchised marginalized people who can not get by with out some sort of societal support. Fuck those people eh? They're making it tough for the privileged, upper crust elites to screw their competition, take monopoly status, screw the working class and make another pile of money they're entitled to.
I really don't care about your comments because you have already shown what your approach to my comment is - you'll be doing ad hominem BS, but here is another fact at you:
S&P came out today, downgraded Japan's credit to their fourth highest rating, to AA-, same as they give to China.
Now you are going to tell me 'Ayn Rand', I'll throw this nonsense back right into your face. Japan has a large debt, which is payable to the population of Japan.
Citizens of Japan hold Japanese debt. Japan also has a Trillion dollars worth of US Treasuries. Japanese people have huge savings.
China has no debt. They hold 3 Trillion in foreign exchange reserve.
USA has no ability to pay, yet it's rated highest among its creditors.
Creditors of USA have lower rating than the debtor that US is and US has higher credit rating.
This is all BS. Just like the commissions that report these nonsensical 'findings', same with these credit rating agencies. Gov't is a bunch of lying thieves and the companies they work with are a bunch of monopolistic lying thieves, I am pointing this out and you attack me based on what? So I have no more interest in your nonsense.
What you're talking about is the same thing I'm talking about, which is that our financial system is completely fucked and there's a good chance it might all collapse unless some drastic action's taken.
However, given the Fed's existence for the better part of half a century, and the intervening years of relative economic stability, it's pretty hard to blame the Fed's actual existence. Central reserve banking -works-... When it's being helmed by people who aren't complete idiots. Cutting the fed makes the entire financial system incredibly difficult in more turbulent times. Your proposal to right the ship by cutting Federal programs is like trying to save a sinking ship by washing the dishes.
My solution would go to reagan era tax levels for the super wealthy, cut corporate taxes but at the same time close the many loopholes that keep our most successful and income generating corporations from paying taxes and invest in the debt, education, infrastructure, and what have you. You know, all those liberal hippie dippie ideas like making sure bridges don't fall apart, that poor people can go to college or see a doctor, or old people don't have to worry about someone raiding their pension fund or their stock broker completely screwing them on a bad deal that wipes out their savings, or hey, maybe making sure that crime is low and it's safe to breathe the air and that the bills are paid on time. But what the hell do I know? I'm just a tax and spend liberal.
Rachel Maddow is doing regular reports about the situation in Egypt.
The media isn't as bad as most naysayers would have you believe.
How did that work out for you?
The dollar losing 98% of its value since the Fed was established, how did that work out for you? Is it so much better with the Fed and dollar falling, than it was in the century prior to the Fed and dollar rising and prices falling instead?
Because wages ALSO went up(typically, before the mangling of the economy by the Reagan-era goons; seriously; Paul Provenza said it best, "Bush's term in office means a lot of liberals have to apologize to Nixon.").
Brazil showed that it doesn't matter what number is on the price tag or on the bill, as long as you have enough of them being circulated into the hands of the populace via their paychecks, your economy can be stable.
I hope you have a lot of THINGS stowed away, because money is quickly becoming worthless and the lenders (you know, Chinese and such) are finding out what the Fed is doing, and they are suffering from inflation of prices, because their economy is actually growing and producing, and production economies suffer inflation by seeing prices go up rapidly, while stagnating and dying economies do not CARE for SOME time, do not see prices go up, especially USA, since it exports its inflation since the USD is reserve (not for much longer).
Except this isn't in the exact nature of central reserve banking. This is the result of incompetent boobs running foreign policy, trade and very incompetent and heartless people running business concerns(Who needs livable wages at the bottom? I need a new solid gold credenza. Gold plating is so passe).
USA had the most economic growth in late 19 century, you are confused.
[citation needed]
Also, it was in that period that the gap between the rich and poor were at it's highest, abuses of the system BY the rich against the poor were so absurd and evil I can't even fathom how we got out of it(Union busting, child labor, scrip, ghettos, no regulation of food, drugs or medicine).
I'll quote the Andrew Shepherd.
We've got serious problems, and we need serious people.
Unfortunately, libertarianism isn't serious, and doesn't address the real issues. The Fed isn't the problem, it's Bernanke, it's Greenspan, it's Geithner. Blaming the Fed is like blaming matches and gasoline on arson rather than pyromania, malice and greed.
Hey Ayn Rand, shove it.
The Fed's ran by incompetent boobs. The Fed itself isn't a bad thing. In fact, before Reaganomics, the Fed was largely a benign entity. Now that the "Greed is Good" crowd has taken over, the Fed's being used to screw everyone except the hyper wealthy.
Getting rid of Government programs would only make things way more difficult. You're proposing that because businesses are greedy and businesses manipulated the fed, we should put ALL OF OUR FAITH AND TRUST in the hands of the same Business interests that screwed us.
Sorry. No. We tried that already in the late 19th century. Between Eisenhower and Reagan we showed that a semi-free market works. Reagan then broke that system.
The problem isn't the Fed, or the "Free Market", it's that there's the innate human nature to try to play the system, any system, into giving a leg up over competition and fairness isn't even a variable in this calculation.
I mean, the problems largely stem from scuzzy bankers and brokers buying and selling what they knew was garbage, along with problems with the fed's lousy idea of what an interest rate is, etc.
It's like finding out that the Minnesota bridge collapse wasn't the fault of computers either. No big deal.
The World Ends with You would've been a much different and maybe weaker game on a single screen console. Although between the touch screen and the touch pad on the back I hope the NGP brings us a sequel to TWEWY.