flstf

My wife and I were sitting in front of the fire enjoying our morning coffee when the topic of the crippled economy came up and the effect it is having on our family, friends and neighbors. We discussed how the so called credit crisis has done more harm to western economies than all the religious terrorists put together.

Perhaps Homeland Security should get involved in helping to prevent this assault on our way of life. Wall Street and Washington operate like a revolving door and we know the corrupt government regulators, CEOs, bankers etc.. who are responsible for this mess. So why not hold them accountable like any other terrorist?

ratbastid

Bankers hate our freedoms?

Cynthetiq

I'm not seeing a link to them being terrorists. They were crooks I don't disagree with that, but terrorists? Each time you go to the bank to cash your paycheck what does that make you in dealing with them? Each time you get a loan?

Again, I can see the connection to crooks and highway robbery. I was at the Wynn Hotel last week and amazed at the full service ATM. You were able to withdraw money from your bank account, when that was capped, you could use your credit card with/without a PIN. The fees associated with it started at $4.99 base then a percentage of the money that was drawn. But that's Las Vegas....

__________________
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flstf

I guess the idea is to expand the term terrorist to include those who would destroy our economy in the name of the money god (greed) as well as those who would destroy our economy in the name of some other religion. Those who worship the money god seem to be able to do far more damage than other religious fanatics. Recent events have shown they have an almost criminal disregard for our safety and well being.

Willravel

What's a terrorist? Is it just anyone that is active in hurting Western interests? Or is it people that resort to guerrilla tactics?

flstf, I do understand the urge to demonize those responsible for the current mess, and likening them to terrorists may very well be the way to achieve that, but we're already creating enough fear and anger. The solution to this situation, like any situation, is to promote calm pragmatism, to take a dispassionate and rational approach and deal with emotions when everything is said and done. It's not difficult to locate those responsible, and if we discover they have been breaking the law we should prosecute them. If we find they've broken no law, we create new and better laws to prevent this from happening again. If we cannot convince our leaders to create new laws, then we find new leaders, and if the system doesn't allow us to choose the leaders necessary, we create a new system.

flstf

We are far more terrorized by our government regulators and their minions on Wall Street than all the other terrorist groups in the world. Those who would destroy our way of life because of selfish greed are even worse when you consider that many of those responsible are rewarded with more wealth in spite of their actions.

My wife and I asked ourselves the same question: What terrorizes you most, our own greedy Washington/Wall Street groups or the other religious fanatic groups in the world? To protect our homeland security which group should we focus on more?

powerclown

The economic situation was of our own making. It's something we (nationally speaking) can control, it was our mistake and it'll be corrected. Terrorism is an external threat, a situation not of our making or control. It represents forces hostile to the existence of others; those with "clenched fists" as Obama says.

flstf

Terrorists that represent forces hostile to the existence of others are certainly frightening. Our own greedy groups who represent forces hostile to our economic viability scare me even more due to the ease in which they carry out their mission which is acquisition of wealth at everyone elses expense, even if it kills world economies.

Also I'm not sure how much control we have or if their/our mistake can be corrected without the world going into another major depression and even more nationalization of most western economies. I don't relish the idea of the same people who got us into this mess cleaning it up. I suspect they will profit handsomely one way or another. I probably shouldn't type when I'm angry.

Charlatan

This suggests that the Western powers have had no hand in the making of Islamic terrorists. I would suggest that, while it is not 100% responsible, the West must shoulder some of the blame for those "clenched fists".

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Cynthetiq

Are we going as far back to Crusades, to the Reconquest, or just 20-30 years of American administration?

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

ASU2003

Who would be the terrorists? The people who started the rumors about Bear Stearns and started the bank collapse? The hedge funds (or secret society on Wall St.) that control the stock market/housing market/commodities market? Computer programmers who setup automatic trading, so when a stock fell 5% in a day, it started a cascade of selling, nobody was buying a free-falling stock, but more and more price triggers automatically came into play.

We haven't seen econo-terrorists yet, even though the FBI should have been paying attention to them instead of the nice eco-terrorists that haven't done anything in the past few years. If China declared economic war on us by hording cheap oil, stop importing any US goods (except for ones it can't make), and call us to pay back the debt.

flstf

I don't think we have to go down that low on the totem pole. A good start would be the Wall Street executives who moved between the Treasury Department and banks. Those who not only profited from and were instrumental in creating toxic dept but also influenced their non-regulation. Paulson comes to mind but there are probably others.

flstf

I wonder if congress will really investigate some of their own? Perhaps they should look into polititians who took money from financial institutions and then voted to deregulate them.