Article: AIN'T NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Advertising by the National Association of Realtors in 2005 and 2006 after home prices had doubled in five years telling all Americans it was the best time to buy and that buying a house is always a great investment.
Both liberal and conservative ideologue pundits skewing every issue in order to prove their pre-ordained position.
Corporate titans like GE own TV networks and slanting the reporting of the news in a way that aligns with their corporate interests.
Paid political consultants train politicians to not answer the questions they are asked. They are trained to repeat their talking points, not answer questions truthfully.
The mainstream media use their power and influence to mislead the public regarding the true state of the economy and the truth about the future finances of the country.
Companies like GMAC/Ditech used misleading TV commercials to lure the ignorant and poor into loans which they could never repay.
The negative ads run during political campaigns are made up of smears, innuendo, half truths, and bold faced lies intended to destroy the character of opponents.
Using polls in order to slant your message in a way that appeals to the most voters.
Using advertising techniques to convince people to buy products they can't afford by appealing to their emotions and biases.
TV shows that glorify killers, immoral lifestyles, crime, drug use, etc. in order to push their agenda on children.
The media exaggerating risks of pandemics, terrorism, crime, and weather events in order to increase ratings.

After slogging through this depressing list I'm sure there will be many in the status quo crowd who will argue that most of the examples I've listed are not illegal, therefore they are not evil. This is where the elite in control of the country and the average American part ways. The elite will make the case that we live in a modern world with modern standards, based on modern thought. They use the media to manipulate the masses into believing that evil is actually good. As the citizens of the country allow this to happen, the hangman's scaffold grows ever larger. Our parents taught us right from wrong. It is black and white. Only those in power want the world to be bathed in shades of grey. This allows them to commit fraud, manipulate public opinion, utilize leverage to make risky bets with taxpayer funds, and use wealth and power to secure more wealth and power. The unelected bureaucrats in the back pocket of the banking cartel designed a bailout plan that attempts to keep the evil bankers in control of our economy. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, whose sound advice has been ignored by government central planners, described the bailout recently:

"The designers of the bailout are either in the pocket of the banks or they're incompetent. It's a real redistribution and a tax on all American savers. This is a strategy trying to recreate the bubble. That's not likely to provide a long-run solution. It's a solution that says let's kick the can down the road a little bit. They haven't thought enough about the determinants of the flow of credit and lending."

The business pundits think it is wonderful that criminally negligent banks can borrow at 0% from the Fed and lend to the public at 6%. Meanwhile, senior citizens get .50% on their money market funds and 2% for 5 year CDs. Until we bring the country back from its acceptance of immorality and evil as common place, we are destined for the tragic fate of the Roman Empire.

Money is the Root of Evil

Now a couple hours past, and I was sitting in my house, the day was winding down and coming to an end, so I turned on the TV, and flipped it over to the news, and what I saw I almost couldn't comprehend, I saw a preacher man in cuffs taking money from the church, he stuffed his bank account with righteous dollar bills but even still I can't say much cause I know were all the same, oh yes we all seek out to satisfy those thrills.

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked – Cage the Elephant

Money is not inherently evil. It is useful to buy food, pay for utilities, education, and transportation. It can be used to support charities, take vacations, or be saved for a rainy day. It can be invested in capital equipment, research, or technology, which has the potential to generate more money for the investor. It can also be squandered on depreciating assets such as unnecessarily luxurious houses, luxury cars, TVs, stereo systems, Blackberries, iPods, and other baubles and trinkets. Spending money on these things is not evil or wrong. Buying these things with borrowed money that you are not capable of paying back is wrong. Lending money to people and companies that cannot pay you back in order to generate short term profits to enrich management is wrong. Creating financial leverage products whose sole purpose is to mislead investors, regulators, accountants and the public in order to enrich management is wrong. Debt which is not used for productive purposes only leads to sorrow and heartbreak.

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Total credit market debt as a percentage of GDP has risen from 130% of GDP in 1952 to 350% of GDP today. The various bailout and stimulus schemes enacted in the last year will drive this percentage above 400% in the near future. When a country allows this much debt to accumulate versus its GDP, they have done something seriously wrong. The country's politicians, business leaders, and citizens have all contributed to this disaster. If the debt had been used for constructive fruitful purposes such as building refineries, laying pipelines, replacing decaying water pipes, building nuclear power plants, repairing the 156,000 structurally deficient bridges, or researching and developing cutting edge energy, biotech, or nanotech technologies the increase may have had some merit.

Instead, banks created new forms of debt to benefit themselves through excessive CEO pay, stock options to reliable lieutenants and stock buybacks to make EPS appear better. Government used debt to pay for useless wars of choice, tax cuts for the rich, expansion of the unfunded Medicare program, ethanol subsidies, and other payoffs to the 40,000 lobbyists scurrying around Washington DC like cockroaches. Of course, I didn't intend to insult cockroaches. Americans used the debt buy and sell houses to each other, leasing cars they couldn't afford, taking vacations they couldn't afford, and buying doo-dads they didn't need. Corporations used debt to buy and sell divisions to each other, bought back their own stock, rewarded management with $50 million compensation packages, while shipping millions of jobs to China. Reckless companies used leverage to do $3 trillion of mergers and acquisitions in 2006, at the top of the market.

The debt was wasted on non-productive assets, useless financial gimmicks and complex fraudulent products sold to investors. No one knows at what level the debt will swamp the ship of state. A rogue wave has just crashed across our bow and washed many overboard. A captain of state that cared about the remaining passengers would reverse course and take responsible evasive action. Our captain and his crew of gamblers have decided to speed up and take the ship of state headlong into a perfect storm. We all know how this will end it is only a matter of when.

We also know how it all began: