If the chance to act upon it and make a difference should arise, we can then know what is happening and be a part of change. The youtube video states how usury was viewed as a moral dilemma and they may be right. Also, if part of the revolutionary war was to get rid of the recurring debt system that England had on them, maybe we should go back to our roots and stray from that system.

I know that youtube can't be trusted, just like any other website, any other biased news station, any other newspaper, or anything else for that matter. To make it even more complicated, there are con artists out there who fabricate news stories and get a news agency to show up and do a report on it and laugh later... You can't really trust anything. You just have to sift through it all and hope you find truth in what you observe.

I don't know if our economic system is going to collapse or not but I think it's good to be educated.

I don't think saying what Jesus did or didn't have is a legitimate criticism.  he probably didn't have running water, either...


our economy isn't going to collapse. it's econ 101:  the market is making a correction for a bad business model (IE sub prime loans).  people got greedy,and many of them got burned (including me. i'm losing my house because of it...)

a similar "correction" happened the tune of a trillion dollars to the savings and loan industry in the 80's-ealry 90's after they were deregulated & issued junk bonds... and it was just a blip on the economy's radar.

just an FYI: much of the sub prime lending practices started because of the gov't interferring with lenders (IE fair lending act *i think that's what it was called,but dont quote me on the name of it*), and making them lend a certain percentage of their money to undeserving (poor) people....

i'd highly suggest reading something like the wall street journal. although they are of a conservative bent, they have EXCELLENT economic,et al reporting. 

Just to throw another log on the increasingly econo-political fire we've got going on here, what's your definition of social conservativeness Dave?   

davo, have you tried talking to a mortgage professional about trying to keep your house? Getting back to "the government intervening" there is a bail out program est by the fed for ppl such as yourself that have fallen behind on payments of subprime loans due to recent adjustment of the rate. If your mortgage was current prior to the adjustment and fell behind because of it, you may qualify for it. It's an FHA program, you should look into it if it's not too late.

It's the Fair Housing Act and you are somewhat correct. The banks are required by the gov't lending practices to extend loans to certain percentages of people in LMI (low to moderate income) areas. It is not necessarily poor people, because they still need to qualify for the loan based on their income and debt, but there are actually regulations in effect to make sure these banks are not "redlining" certain geographic areas. I agree with you, the gov't interferring to begin with is unfortunately what brought us to where we are. 

lol. Honestly guys, you have got to try living in a different socio-economic system for a few years. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm just saying a breath of different air is a fascinating thing.

Living in Finland, a country where the majority of the population TRUST the government, because they're WORTH trusting, is a bit mind boggling.

Another great resource for economics is a non-profit organization called The American Institute for Economic Research:

http://www.aier.org/

From what I can tell, they're VERY left-wing and have a specific agenda. I wouldn't trust them at all.