>>>Before taking a break, and after coming back from a break, you must be on the clock for 1 hour.... Unfortunately, there's no clause allowing you to waive this right. >>>
There doesn't need to be. I can voluntarily waive my own rights by agreeing to be someone's slave (it's only INvoluntary servitude that is forbidden, not voluntary). I can also agree to do mow my neighbor's lawn without charging for it, or to skip my lunch, or whatever. There's nothing in the law that forbids me from acting as my own agent to waive my own, individual rights.
>>>if I choose to skip lunch...companies can be fined. The law is clear.
I'm aware of that law. I figure that as long as neither the company nor the government is paying me, they have no right to tell me how to spend that half-hour of time. Those 30 minutes are mine, and if I want to use "bank" those 30 minutes, and leave at 4 p.m. rather than 4:30, that's MY time and MY choice. I'm not a slave. (Nobody can tell me how to spend my 30 minutes.)
I'm sure such a law could be challenged by an employee (on the grounds it violates either the 13th or 14th amendment), but so far no employee's wanted to expend the effort.
BTW my previous employer worked on a 4/5 day week. The number of days alternated week-to-week, first 5 then 4 days, which was a nice arrangement. It also helped reduce gasoline usage and pollution by 10% since people could stay home every other Friday.
Which was actually a case of marketers who were lying. Anybody who has opened a Jaguar can see it used a 16/32-bit 68000 for its "brain", so basically the Jaguar was just a Genesis/Megadrive on steroids. In contrast, the Nintendo 64 actually did have a 64-bit processor that could grab & process 64 bit chunks from RAM or ROM, so the Japanese were being honest in their naming of the console. (The part they left-out was that most N64 games used the processor's 32-bit backwards-compatibility mode.)
In any case, the N64 is clearly more powerful than the PS1. Just compare the 3D virtual world of Banjo-Kazooie versus one of the PS1 Spyro games. Banjo has more polygons and a smoother frame rate, and yet despite that superiority, the N64 still sold only 1 unit for every 3 PS1s sold.
That goes back to my original point: The superior console/portable is typically NOT the #1 selling games machine.
Wow. You remind me of my dead English teacher. She was anal too. (Point: Who cares how I structured my message? This is just a chat forum. Loosen up, drop out, chill out.)
>>>>>PS1 was only 32-bit but still trumped the faster N64.
>>"32-bit" is a completely meaningless term.
But not the term "slower" or "faster" when measuring relative performance. The PS1 is clearly slower than the N64's processor, and yet despite that handicap, came-out on top. Read the WHOLE sentence, not just the first half. Thank you.:-) (Also I disagree that "bitness" is completely meaningless.) (Even if you designed an 8-bit processor using modern technology, no way is it going to be able to keep-up with its 32 or 64 bit cousins.) (Bitness has at least some meaning, if only because the processor can grab more data per cycle.)
>>>You are naming systems, yet the company that did better in each comparison, made far better games. That has nothing to do with the processing power. >>>
(whoosh). Apparently my point went right over your head. That's precisely what I was saying! It's the GAMES not how much power the console/portable has that determines who comes out #1 in sales. The Pandora may be a great machine (ditto the PSP), but I doubt it's going to topple Nintendo's dominance in the portable world.
>>>we implemented these policies and cut out IT overhead by nearly 2 million a year, both dropping our IT staff by half and increasesing system availablity 10%. >>>
But losing half your engineers/programmers. As I mentioned elsewhere I worked for the FCC, and their computer systems had NO restrictions of any kind. We still got the job done.
>>>I'm wondering what category of business you're in that requires those sort of controls.
The previous poster reminds me of the HR Woman at my last job. Cold as ice. I'm glad I wasn't her husband. She seemed to have no emotions whatsoever, and trying to talk to her was a waste, because she saw everything in strict black-and-white terms; no shades of gray.
When I left that company, she refused to let me pack my own stuff. I asked, "How do I know you won't miss something?" No response. "At the very least let me double-check my desk & verify it's empty." No response. So I stood by and watched helplessly as this HR Woman ransacked my stuff & shoved it into boxes. ----- Then she refused to return my music CDs to me, claiming they might contain proprietary data. I said, "Well scan them now." No response from the ice queen except "no". ----- So I had to call in the local police, who then ordered the woman to turn-over my personal property, and let me verify my desk was indeed empty.
There's an ancient Anglo-Saxon word which applies to this woman.
Although to be fair, she was merely applying the stupid rules handed-down from on-high. Still a sensible person would recognize the unfairness of stealing a person's private music CDs, and ignore the rules.
>>>You get 1 hour each 8 hour shift (more if you work a longer shift). You can break that up however you like, provided that in this state by law, you have to take a single break not less than 30 minutes >>>
This reminds me of my minimum wage job in a retail store. 1 hour per day. 30 minutes unpaid; 15 minutes paid in the morning; 15 minutes paid in the evening. ----- Nowadays (as an engineer) I skip lunch entirely, preferring to eat & type documents at the same time. That way I only have to be "in hell" for 8 hours rather than 8.5 hours. Minus a 2 hour commute leaves 14 hours per day to spend time with my family.
Remember: You only get 60-70 years as a full-grown adult. Once the time is gone, you can't get it back. Don't squander the time doing things you do not enjoy.
What I can't figure out is why internet radio is verboten. They tell us that it would slowdown the network, but the station I listen to only uses 16 kbit/s, which won't even impact the network (16k is slower than dialup speed). I miss working for the FCC; they had no restrictions of any kind (we could even stream video), and yet the network did not collapse.
I think the corporations are just creating a non-existent crisis.
Still teeny-tiny compared to the 6000 billion lost in stock market investments this past month. Even if the Iraq War spending disappeared completely, it would not have any measurable impact on the economy
Well that money was given in 1996. So first it was used to upgrade analog phone lines to digital phone lines, which improved service from 14k to 56k (a cutting-edge, brand-new standard). Next it was used to roll-out DSL, Cable Internet, and FiOS in the 2000s, which required installing millions of "node boxes" in local neighborhoods, and is still an ongoing process.
So, no, the money was not wasted. It was spent according to the rules that Congress laid-out (first improve the phone lines, then provide high-speed later). THEY made the rules; blame them if you are unhappy with the results.
I suspect Japan's figures to be about as accurate as China's figures on the age of its gymnasts. I suspect the Japanese government is "cooking the books" (which it has been known to do) by excluding citizens in rural communities or outlying islands. If the U.S. government did the same thing, looking only at cities or towns, our average would jump overnight from 10 megabit to 100 megabit.
>>>I might not be willing to pay the cost of installing a DSLAM..... but I would be willing to pay just the monthly fee for the internet access >>>
AND raiding your neighbors' wallets for $3 a month to cover your costs. If I did that, I'd feel guilty of theft. If I live in no man's land, then *I* should be the one to pay for the cost of running the wires out to my home, not my neighbors.
Plus the additional fact the the electrification act encourages suburban sprawl which encourages environmental destruction & needless paving-over of valuable farmland. I'm surprised the Green Party, or the environmentalist wing of the Democrats are not petitioning to have this act repealed.
>>>My parents' house, as an example. It's about six miles outside town, and won't get broadband within the lifetime of the universe, if only market forces apply. >>>
Nonsense. My house was situated similar to your parents' house, but last year Verizon started selling DSL over the existing phone lines. No upgrades required; I'm still using the same lines I've always used. Verizon did this, not because they had to do it, but because they wanted to do it. They saw an opportunity to make money. The free market worked.
BTW that electrification act is the greatest mistake.
It encourages suburban sprawl via government subsidies. It should be repealed and the tax removed from everybody's phone bill. If you want to live 50, 60, 70 miles away from the city, then YOU pay the costs of running the electrical wires out to your house. Or setup your own private electrical company. (Or better yet, live closer to town and discourage the environmental destruction caused by wasteful suburban development.)
Speed has increased approximately 5000 times since I first subscribed (from 1.2k upto 6000k). And the cost actually went down from $40 to $30 a month (2008 dollars) with major improvements in service (from 16-color still images to 65000-color fullmotion video).
And this all happened without Congress' interference.
>>>Inflation of the currency and ungodly overspending results in a deflationary bomb, well the only thing that can save us is... uh more inflation of the currency and more ungodly spending. >>>
You pointed-out the main flaw with our economy. We keep trying to avoid recession through bailouts, and we just keep making it worse. We postponed the 1999 crash to 2004 through a rewriting of the law (allowing banks to abandon real assets in favor of volatile stocks). We postponed the 2004-5 crash through dropping interest rates to insanely-low levels of 1%. Are we now going to postpone the 2008 crash through more careless extension of free money (credit)?
We may succeed, but that just means the crash will happen in 2010 or 11, and it will be far far worse.
A "console" is something you put under or next-to your TV, along with your VCR, DVR, and Stereo.
A handheld device is more properly termed a "portable", not a console.
Also this news story reads like an advertisement. Remember the Atari Lynx? It was the most-powerful portable of its time (late 80s), and was supposed to kill-off the boring black-and-white Gameboy, because the Lynx had full-color with stereo sound and an ultra-fast processor. Doesn't that just want to make you go "oooo"?
The Lynx flopped.
Don't be surprised if Pandora does too. It takes more than being "the most powerful" to succeed in gaming. In fact, the #1 consoles of the past were actually NOT the most powerful. Atari 2600 was woefully slow; NES was inferior to Sega Master System. PS1 was only 32-bit but still trumped the faster N64. PS2 was weaker than Xbox or Cube, but still came out #1.
I'm sure the Nintendo DS portable will still be #1 for several more years.
>>>our economy has been further stressed by massive war spending
No not really. The U.S. spends about 10 billion per year on Iraq/Afghanistan, which is just small change compared to the 700 billion bailout, or the 6000 billion lost in the stock market since September 1st.
>>>Your data must not be that important if you aren't willing to pay a little cash to keep it safe.
I did spend a "little cash" to buy a $100 USB drive. The problem is I never anticipated the police braking-into my house and stealing it. And yeah, we're just talking about MP3s and AVIs. Not worth paying a monthly fee to protect in some anonymous account.
I have 1 megabit/s for $15 a month. I remember when that same speed used to cost $50 (three years ago), and earlier it was $500 (back in the 1990s). And in the 1980s it didn't even exist. Most of us used 0.001 megabit modems.
Interesting trivia:
In 1987 it took me an hour to download an 880 kilobyte Commodore Amiga game. In 2008, that statistic is still the same - it still takes approximately one hour to download a modern PC game, even though today's games are ~5000 times larger in size. POINT: Data has ballooned in size, but so too have connection speeds. Technology has kept pace. (And it will continue to keep pace, despite Comcast's chicken little cries.)
>>>"By 2012, the bill for data access is projected to be around $215 per month."
I pay $15 a month for DSL. I don't really see that jumping 1400% in just three years time; the people who wrote this article are looney. And even if the prediction was accurate, I'd just downgrade my self to dialup service, which only costs $7-10 a month.
>>>I do realize however that my demands for bandwidth or data transfer have mushroomed up, as have everyone else's.
Yeah.
Then what? Bandwidth has been ballooning for a long, long time. When I first bought a computer the files I downloaded were 50 kilobytes pictures. Later that increased to 300 kilobyte pictures. Later it was 5000 kilobyte music, and now 350,000 kilobyte videos. ----- Sounds bad doesn't it? BUT: Every time data sizes increased, the technology expanded from 1.2k to 9.6k to 56k and now 6000k connections. ----- Since 1987, when I bought my first modem, data sizes have increased 7,000 times, but internet connections have ALSO increased to keep pace (5000 times faster). And they will continue increasing as technology improves.
The most telling statistic? Time. In 1990 it took me an hour to download a full Commodore Amiga game. In 2008, that statistic is still the same - it still takes approximately one hour to download a modern PC game. As long as companies continue laying additional lines, and upgrading to newer faster technologies, the internet will continue to grow at the same rate as the data growth.
>>>>Not that regulations helped this time around since they were neutered by the Republicans
Actually it was just ONE democrat.
In 1999 President Clinton signed into law regulations allowing traditional banks to invest in stock. He over-turned a rule that had stood ever since 1929's crash, and no surprise we're getting a repeat. Our great-grandparents in Congress passed that "banks cannot invest in stock" regulation for a reason (experience with bank failures), and President Clinton ignored that experience, figuring he knew better.
At first everything was okay, but now the mortgage stocks are crashing, and banks are going with them.
Other Democrats also deserve blame for passing laws allowing banks to give mortgages without any downpayment ("every person deserves a home even if they cannot afford it"), but that's a minor flaw we probably could have survived, if the original 1930s law requiring banks to have real money backed by real assets (no stocks) was still in effect. Thanks Bill. This is *another* fine mess you've gotten us into.
Slashdot Mirror
I mistyped. It was actually the FAA. And it was only one year ago; they didn't block ANY websites, not even sites like playboy.com
>>>Before taking a break, and after coming back from a break, you must be on the clock for 1 hour.... Unfortunately, there's no clause allowing you to waive this right.
>>>
There doesn't need to be. I can voluntarily waive my own rights by agreeing to be someone's slave (it's only INvoluntary servitude that is forbidden, not voluntary). I can also agree to do mow my neighbor's lawn without charging for it, or to skip my lunch, or whatever. There's nothing in the law that forbids me from acting as my own agent to waive my own, individual rights.
>>>if I choose to skip lunch...companies can be fined. The law is clear.
I'm aware of that law. I figure that as long as neither the company nor the government is paying me, they have no right to tell me how to spend that half-hour of time. Those 30 minutes are mine, and if I want to use "bank" those 30 minutes, and leave at 4 p.m. rather than 4:30, that's MY time and MY choice. I'm not a slave. (Nobody can tell me how to spend my 30 minutes.)
I'm sure such a law could be challenged by an employee (on the grounds it violates either the 13th or 14th amendment), but so far no employee's wanted to expend the effort.
BTW my previous employer worked on a 4/5 day week. The number of days alternated week-to-week, first 5 then 4 days, which was a nice arrangement. It also helped reduce gasoline usage and pollution by 10% since people could stay home every other Friday.
Which was actually a case of marketers who were lying. Anybody who has opened a Jaguar can see it used a 16/32-bit 68000 for its "brain", so basically the Jaguar was just a Genesis/Megadrive on steroids. In contrast, the Nintendo 64 actually did have a 64-bit processor that could grab & process 64 bit chunks from RAM or ROM, so the Japanese were being honest in their naming of the console. (The part they left-out was that most N64 games used the processor's 32-bit backwards-compatibility mode.)
In any case, the N64 is clearly more powerful than the PS1. Just compare the 3D virtual world of Banjo-Kazooie versus one of the PS1 Spyro games. Banjo has more polygons and a smoother frame rate, and yet despite that superiority, the N64 still sold only 1 unit for every 3 PS1s sold.
That goes back to my original point: The superior console/portable is typically NOT the #1 selling games machine.
Wow. You remind me of my dead English teacher. She was anal too. (Point: Who cares how I structured my message? This is just a chat forum. Loosen up, drop out, chill out.)
>>>>>PS1 was only 32-bit but still trumped the faster N64.
>>"32-bit" is a completely meaningless term.
But not the term "slower" or "faster" when measuring relative performance. The PS1 is clearly slower than the N64's processor, and yet despite that handicap, came-out on top. Read the WHOLE sentence, not just the first half. Thank you. :-) (Also I disagree that "bitness" is completely meaningless.) (Even if you designed an 8-bit processor using modern technology, no way is it going to be able to keep-up with its 32 or 64 bit cousins.) (Bitness has at least some meaning, if only because the processor can grab more data per cycle.)
>>>You are naming systems, yet the company that did better in each comparison, made far better games. That has nothing to do with the processing power.
>>>
(whoosh). Apparently my point went right over your head. That's precisely what I was saying! It's the GAMES not how much power the console/portable has that determines who comes out #1 in sales. The Pandora may be a great machine (ditto the PSP), but I doubt it's going to topple Nintendo's dominance in the portable world.
>>>we implemented these policies and cut out IT overhead by nearly 2 million a year, both dropping our IT staff by half and increasesing system availablity 10%.
>>>
But losing half your engineers/programmers. As I mentioned elsewhere I worked for the FCC, and their computer systems had NO restrictions of any kind. We still got the job done.
>>>I'm wondering what category of business you're in that requires those sort of controls.
The previous poster reminds me of the HR Woman at my last job. Cold as ice. I'm glad I wasn't her husband. She seemed to have no emotions whatsoever, and trying to talk to her was a waste, because she saw everything in strict black-and-white terms; no shades of gray.
When I left that company, she refused to let me pack my own stuff. I asked, "How do I know you won't miss something?" No response. "At the very least let me double-check my desk & verify it's empty." No response. So I stood by and watched helplessly as this HR Woman ransacked my stuff & shoved it into boxes. ----- Then she refused to return my music CDs to me, claiming they might contain proprietary data. I said, "Well scan them now." No response from the ice queen except "no". ----- So I had to call in the local police, who then ordered the woman to turn-over my personal property, and let me verify my desk was indeed empty.
There's an ancient Anglo-Saxon word which applies to this woman.
Although to be fair, she was merely applying the stupid rules handed-down from on-high. Still a sensible person would recognize the unfairness of stealing a person's private music CDs, and ignore the rules.
>>>You get 1 hour each 8 hour shift (more if you work a longer shift). You can break that up however you like, provided that in this state by law, you have to take a single break not less than 30 minutes
>>>
This reminds me of my minimum wage job in a retail store. 1 hour per day. 30 minutes unpaid; 15 minutes paid in the morning; 15 minutes paid in the evening. ----- Nowadays (as an engineer) I skip lunch entirely, preferring to eat & type documents at the same time. That way I only have to be "in hell" for 8 hours rather than 8.5 hours. Minus a 2 hour commute leaves 14 hours per day to spend time with my family.
Remember: You only get 60-70 years as a full-grown adult. Once the time is gone, you can't get it back. Don't squander the time doing things you do not enjoy.
What I can't figure out is why internet radio is verboten. They tell us that it would slowdown the network, but the station I listen to only uses 16 kbit/s, which won't even impact the network (16k is slower than dialup speed). I miss working for the FCC; they had no restrictions of any kind (we could even stream video), and yet the network did not collapse.
I think the corporations are just creating a non-existent crisis.
Still teeny-tiny compared to the 6000 billion lost in stock market investments this past month. Even if the Iraq War spending disappeared completely, it would not have any measurable impact on the economy
>>>And exactly WHERE did that money go?
Well that money was given in 1996. So first it was used to upgrade analog phone lines to digital phone lines, which improved service from 14k to 56k (a cutting-edge, brand-new standard). Next it was used to roll-out DSL, Cable Internet, and FiOS in the 2000s, which required installing millions of "node boxes" in local neighborhoods, and is still an ongoing process.
So, no, the money was not wasted. It was spent according to the rules that Congress laid-out (first improve the phone lines, then provide high-speed later). THEY made the rules; blame them if you are unhappy with the results.
I suspect Japan's figures to be about as accurate as China's figures on the age of its gymnasts. I suspect the Japanese government is "cooking the books" (which it has been known to do) by excluding citizens in rural communities or outlying islands. If the U.S. government did the same thing, looking only at cities or towns, our average would jump overnight from 10 megabit to 100 megabit.
>>>draw attention to US poor broadband penetration
The U.S. is no worse-off than Canada, Australia, or the European Union. We all have the same average speed of 9-10 Megabit/s.
>>>I might not be willing to pay the cost of installing a DSLAM..... but I would be willing to pay just the monthly fee for the internet access
>>>
AND raiding your neighbors' wallets for $3 a month to cover your costs. If I did that, I'd feel guilty of theft. If I live in no man's land, then *I* should be the one to pay for the cost of running the wires out to my home, not my neighbors.
Plus the additional fact the the electrification act encourages suburban sprawl which encourages environmental destruction & needless paving-over of valuable farmland. I'm surprised the Green Party, or the environmentalist wing of the Democrats are not petitioning to have this act repealed.
>>>My parents' house, as an example. It's about six miles outside town, and won't get broadband within the lifetime of the universe, if only market forces apply.
>>>
Nonsense. My house was situated similar to your parents' house, but last year Verizon started selling DSL over the existing phone lines. No upgrades required; I'm still using the same lines I've always used. Verizon did this, not because they had to do it, but because they wanted to do it. They saw an opportunity to make money. The free market worked.
BTW that electrification act is the greatest mistake.
It encourages suburban sprawl via government subsidies. It should be repealed and the tax removed from everybody's phone bill. If you want to live 50, 60, 70 miles away from the city, then YOU pay the costs of running the electrical wires out to your house. Or setup your own private electrical company. (Or better yet, live closer to town and discourage the environmental destruction caused by wasteful suburban development.)
Speed has increased approximately 5000 times since I first subscribed (from 1.2k upto 6000k). And the cost actually went down from $40 to $30 a month (2008 dollars) with major improvements in service (from 16-color still images to 65000-color fullmotion video).
And this all happened without Congress' interference.
>>>Inflation of the currency and ungodly overspending results in a deflationary bomb, well the only thing that can save us is... uh more inflation of the currency and more ungodly spending.
>>>
You pointed-out the main flaw with our economy. We keep trying to avoid recession through bailouts, and we just keep making it worse. We postponed the 1999 crash to 2004 through a rewriting of the law (allowing banks to abandon real assets in favor of volatile stocks). We postponed the 2004-5 crash through dropping interest rates to insanely-low levels of 1%. Are we now going to postpone the 2008 crash through more careless extension of free money (credit)?
We may succeed, but that just means the crash will happen in 2010 or 11, and it will be far far worse.
A "console" is something you put under or next-to your TV, along with your VCR, DVR, and Stereo.
A handheld device is more properly termed a "portable", not a console.
Also this news story reads like an advertisement. Remember the Atari Lynx? It was the most-powerful portable of its time (late 80s), and was supposed to kill-off the boring black-and-white Gameboy, because the Lynx had full-color with stereo sound and an ultra-fast processor. Doesn't that just want to make you go "oooo"?
The Lynx flopped.
Don't be surprised if Pandora does too. It takes more than being "the most powerful" to succeed in gaming. In fact, the #1 consoles of the past were actually NOT the most powerful. Atari 2600 was woefully slow; NES was inferior to Sega Master System. PS1 was only 32-bit but still trumped the faster N64. PS2 was weaker than Xbox or Cube, but still came out #1.
I'm sure the Nintendo DS portable will still be #1 for several more years.
>>>our economy has been further stressed by massive war spending
No not really. The U.S. spends about 10 billion per year on Iraq/Afghanistan, which is just small change compared to the 700 billion bailout, or the 6000 billion lost in the stock market since September 1st.
>>>Your data must not be that important if you aren't willing to pay a little cash to keep it safe.
I did spend a "little cash" to buy a $100 USB drive. The problem is I never anticipated the police braking-into my house and stealing it. And yeah, we're just talking about MP3s and AVIs. Not worth paying a monthly fee to protect in some anonymous account.
I have 1 megabit/s for $15 a month. I remember when that same speed used to cost $50 (three years ago), and earlier it was $500 (back in the 1990s). And in the 1980s it didn't even exist. Most of us used 0.001 megabit modems.
Interesting trivia:
In 1987 it took me an hour to download an 880 kilobyte Commodore Amiga game. In 2008, that statistic is still the same - it still takes approximately one hour to download a modern PC game, even though today's games are ~5000 times larger in size. POINT: Data has ballooned in size, but so too have connection speeds. Technology has kept pace. (And it will continue to keep pace, despite Comcast's chicken little cries.)
>>>"By 2012, the bill for data access is projected to be around $215 per month."
I pay $15 a month for DSL. I don't really see that jumping 1400% in just three years time; the people who wrote this article are looney. And even if the prediction was accurate, I'd just downgrade my self to dialup service, which only costs $7-10 a month.
>>>I do realize however that my demands for bandwidth or data transfer have mushroomed up, as have everyone else's.
Yeah.
Then what? Bandwidth has been ballooning for a long, long time. When I first bought a computer the files I downloaded were 50 kilobytes pictures. Later that increased to 300 kilobyte pictures. Later it was 5000 kilobyte music, and now 350,000 kilobyte videos. ----- Sounds bad doesn't it? BUT: Every time data sizes increased, the technology expanded from 1.2k to 9.6k to 56k and now 6000k connections. ----- Since 1987, when I bought my first modem, data sizes have increased 7,000 times, but internet connections have ALSO increased to keep pace (5000 times faster). And they will continue increasing as technology improves.
The most telling statistic? Time. In 1990 it took me an hour to download a full Commodore Amiga game. In 2008, that statistic is still the same - it still takes approximately one hour to download a modern PC game. As long as companies continue laying additional lines, and upgrading to newer faster technologies, the internet will continue to grow at the same rate as the data growth.
>>>>Not that regulations helped this time around since they were neutered by the Republicans
Actually it was just ONE democrat.
In 1999 President Clinton signed into law regulations allowing traditional banks to invest in stock. He over-turned a rule that had stood ever since 1929's crash, and no surprise we're getting a repeat. Our great-grandparents in Congress passed that "banks cannot invest in stock" regulation for a reason (experience with bank failures), and President Clinton ignored that experience, figuring he knew better.
At first everything was okay, but now the mortgage stocks are crashing, and banks are going with them.
Other Democrats also deserve blame for passing laws allowing banks to give mortgages without any downpayment ("every person deserves a home even if they cannot afford it"), but that's a minor flaw we probably could have survived, if the original 1930s law requiring banks to have real money backed by real assets (no stocks) was still in effect. Thanks Bill. This is *another* fine mess you've gotten us into.