And this is just so far.  If the Great Financial Collapse is viewed as the latest and greatest scam for the financial elites to extract wealth from the masses, this bubble is inflating at a record rate.  How many multiples of the US GDP can be dedicated to bubble patching and what portion of that flow can they extract before it blows?  My guess is that they extract a few percentage points of the flow for themselves and that it will blow by sometime in 2010.

When I was in contracting and selling systems to Saudi Arabia and Nigeria I was scandalized that million dollar projects would be built, tested and shipped only to sit in shipping containers in the desert or jungle for the sole apparent purpose of having the authorizing minister collect a 10% commission, which we of course tripled and added to our price.  This is far worse.  Wall Street has turned the USA into a Third World Nation.  The fact that it is a very wealthy TWN is all the better.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."