National Debt

Economics has always intrigued me. If I was just a little (or a lot) better at math, I think I would have studied economics instead of history. International political economy is fascinating, especially concerning the economic policies of developing countries and aid (I'm actually anti-aid, but that's a completely different issue). We all know that we're going through a tough economic patch right now... I personally don't know why all the European countries are panicking because they didn't have the banking problem that the U.S. did... so... yeah. They would calm down, breathe a little, and realize there really isn't a financial crisis - they're just creating it themselves. The American economy is the one that's really in need of help at the moment, which is no surprise since I saw this coming from a mile away. It was kind of obvious that we'd have this problem today... I mean, only people who were biased and self-delusional denied any problems, which unfortunately turned out to be most of the people within and interacting with the political sphere.

Anyway, this picture made me laugh:
The National Debt Clock is shown near Times Square in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008. The clock has run out of digits to record the growing figure. As a temporary fix, the dollar sign has been switched to a figure--the '1' in $10 trillion. The clock is marking the current national debt at about $10.2 trillion. This might take a while.

Likewise, the consumer confidence index has also suffered, though apparently "on the rise":
I think it was Pope Benedict XVI who said that the financial crisis was caused by greed. No kidding. Capitalism can be great... but it leads to greed. One thing I really find off-putting about America and Americans in general, albeit, I am one, is the materialism. Materialism is so... shallow!!! I mean, who cares if you have a big house, designer clothes, a big ugly hummer that burns fuel like an oil tank on fire... is it worth putting yourself in debt? Is it worth it to spend money so frivolously when other people in this world are starving to death? I'm not saying give up everything and become a monk. I'm saying, before we buy something with our credit car or want to trade our house for a bigger one (do we really need those extra bedrooms?), just pause and think for a second. We're all going to die anyway. When we die, we're not taking our money with us. Think about it.

Today's Random Picture:
Let's not end up like this!!!!!