Normally, when I'd see triple sevens like this I'd be screaming WHO'S THE BIG WINNER HERE TONIGHT AT THE CASINO? HUH? YOU ARE, BABY, YOU ARE!!
But those triple sevens don't represent a big win in a swanky casino. They represent yesterday's 777 + point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average after Congress failed to pass the millionaire trader relief act.
Yep, the financial markets discovered what Albert Brooks learned so painfully in Lost in America: when you recklessly piss away your nest egg on Vegas-style gambling, it's not likely anyone is going to give that money back to you.
11 comments:
Amen
"the millionaire trader relief act"
That is just perfect!
I was just o'er at Flannery's pad and I commented that I had no idea what the hell y'all are talking about, and with good reason: for someone who's currently unemployed and often works w/o health insurance or retirement plans and WILL work until the day I keel o'er dead, I don't bother to understand this stuff.
Besides, I kinda like to watch financial people run around like Chicken Little yelling about how the sky is falling and sit here in my lil' corner o' the universe and chuckle.
Lovely visual to make this gamble real. And nothing says it quite as well as the ding ding ding of the big bell on Wall Street and the ding ding ding of a slot machine when you hit those triple sevens.
Nice post.
Yep, we're some lucky bastards alright, aren't we?
Like capn ergo says, I feel kind of safe. After our major job loss, we cashed all our investments and wiped out our savings so no problems there!
mnmom, I was reading about your situation over on your blog. It is an outrage that good folks like you are put through that. "Protected" by having nothing to lose...
Utah, that has been an obsession of mine over the past decade or so: the way in which our financial institutions have moved away from the idea of making money by actually producing anything of value, or trading in anything of value, and instead have indulged in an orgy of speculation and trading in increasingly abstract financial schemes that resemble pyramid scams.
Cap'n, the thing that will suck is watching prices go up, your wages buying less, and having to compete with more and more unemployed people for fewer decent jobs.
Skylersdad, thank you! I made that up myself in a fit of class war rage. That's what really bothered me about this plan--I could not see how this was going to have a real, positive impact on working people who are suffering (beyond the usual vague, trickle-down bullshit) but only saw that it involved handing bags of money over to institutions and businesses that have already shown they CANT HANDLE MONEY.
Flannery, thanks for the witness sister!
I saw the bill referred to as "No banker left behind"
Even I know to take only a twenty dollar bill and no credit cards or ATM cards into a casino. Sheesh.
It sucks. ALL my money was in AIG. Every last dime.
It would have semed worse at 666 ;->
Great analogy!
"We'll comp your breakfast."
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