Do you just hate all investors or what?

Of course not. But even you have to admit there's a teeny, tiny shred of difference between investors who put their money into something not only to make a profit but to ensure the company's continuing good efforts -- and those who choose to rape the economic landscape for solely their own benefit, even if it means to hell with everyone else.

Yeah, a fine line, but a telling one. The former are the millions of shareholders who see growth in capitalism as a good thing; I'm happily one of them. But do you HONESTLY believe that what we're seeing now is "growth"? Food prices out of control, gas prices out of control -- in general creating an economic situation that benefits... well, WHO, precisely? Folks losing their homes, folks starving in Africa because they cant even afford rice -- shall we just write all of them off and say, "Oops, bad nvestment, sucks to be them"? and move on, knowing full well that we (whomever we might be) got out of this with a few extra bucks in our pockets even though others have been put through the wringer?

Is that your idea of capitalism? It damn sure isnt mine, sorry.

Folks wrote earler about people in corporations who consciously mislead, if not outright lie, just so they can make a few dollars more than anyone else -- how, they asked, could these people sleep at night? My response then and now is: very, very well -- because they simply dont care. They'll never see the people they foreclosed on. They'll never have to deal with the people who starved because of them,.

And quite frankly, right now, this very instant, you yourself are coming across as one of those uncaring, "me above all" SOBs who create and manipulate these situations solely for personal advantage.

Yeah, we'll all decry dictators who massacre their people, but we'll quietly ignore the ones who do the same thing, save in more insiduous ways... because, hey, after all, that's capitalism. If you dont win, you lose: isnt that how the game is played? Right? That's the way the system works, right?

Well, sorry, but no, it is NOT how the system is supposed to work. In our version of a capitalist society, we say we're not supposed to just turn out back on those who need a hand. I'm not suggesting socialism, if that's what you're already leaping to: no, instead, I'm simply pointing out that unless the market is kept fluid at all levels, from the highest to the lowest, then capitalism, as we're seeing right now, starts to implode on itself. Those in the lowest ranks cant afford the basic necessities -- well, tell me, where do you then get the workers needed for the day to day operations of your company? You cant even rely on outsourcing anymore, in case you hadnt noticed, because those countries are getting hard hit by spiraling prices as well... even more so than we, because a buck increase in a gallon of gas might sting us a little, but for someone making four bucks an hour, it's a disaster.

So, no workers. What next? Well, if you have no workers, how do you expect to make a profit on anything? You cant jack the price up on something that doesnt exist, and once you're out of inventory, that's it, end of the road. Worse, let's say you run a company involved in transportation -- notice what's happening there? Smaller airlines are shutting down; larger ones are merging to try and save what's left of their economic butts, while at the same time (1) raising fares, (2) having fewer flights, and (3) charging for everything, including -- now -- your carry-on luggage. So people say, screw this, I'll take the train -- and what happens? Fewer tickets, less working capital -- doesnt take a doctorate in economics to see where this is going, does it?

But lest you miss the point about the guys who manipulate these prices -- they're not doing it for the benefit of the mass of shareholders, because that's not how they work. Research a little, and you'll find that they prefer to play both sides against the middle -- running prices up to score a profit on one end, then resetting the game so they win again while the company crashes and burns. Both ways, they -- not the retirees and kids' parents you're so concerned about -- make the money. The retirees and parents get stuck cleaning up the mess, just as they had to back in the 80s, just as they had to in the early 90s, and just as they will have to now.

But, lest you think otherwise, this isnt quite like Black Monday. The market is running on an artificial high right now, powered by speculation and little more. And, believe it or not, it's the same set of circumstances that created Black Monday those many years ago. The only question left right now is when the crash is gonna happen, because it's inevitable. And the numbers this time around are going to be far, far more severe -- why do I say that? Because history is my guide on that point. Again, look it up, see the pattern, and you'll figure it out soon enough.

Insofar as the vested interests of the oil companies... well, d'uh. Of course they're involved... but not to the degree that you think. The balance of that is political economics. The US has always needed that region, and we were more than happy to work behind the scenes: doing this, doing that, doing everything we could to make sure we were in control: politically, economically, and militarily. And for a long time, it worked, until we made the mistake of thinking that the Cold War could be played out in Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq, and those dimwitted natives wouldnt notice a thing.

But funny, haha, joke's on us, because, this time around, they did. Here we trained people like Hussein and Bin Laden to fight the Soviets for us -- only to see them and others like them look at the US and think, "Oh great, we just get rid of one country, now we have to deal with another one trying to take us over?" And unlike the guys in years past, this particular crop didnt feel quite so much like going along with what Washington had to say about how they were supposed to run their lives.

So is it really all that surprising to see the Shah of Iran (who was, remember, put there by us) deposed by a bunch of really, really angry folks? Is it really surprising to see Iraq do the same thing? I know we hate to be seen as the bad guys, but let's face it: we were. Big time. The guard dogs we trained to kill and destroy turned around and bit our hands all the way up to the shoulder... and we're supposed to be shocked and surprised when this happens?

Hell, what did we expect?

So I repeat: thanks to a blithering idiot in the White House, who took us one step too far in re-making the Middle East in our own god-like image, coupled with a few traders on Wall Street for whom all of this is nothing more than a game -- well, welcome to the economics of 2008. Have a lovely stay.

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider