25 trillion? Isn't your total low by about an order of ten? The government watchdog on money said there was really 25 trillion of debt on the US books, not 2!

If you add up all the bad debt in the world(make sure you add derivatives and bad shadow insurance losses too), plus all the lost cash from jobs and investments and value of property dropping, isn't the total closer to 250 trillion dollars?

All of this because greedy people wanted to remove all the checks and balances from investment, because they thought the investment industry would regulate itself best?....Right.....and who is it that benifited from all this? Middle class and poor people?

Folks the whole world economy is less than 25 trillion a year, that means if the whole world did nothing but pay back bad debt for ten years we would just break even. Whom among us could survive for ten years with no income?

This whole fiasco is a cooked deal, with 1% of the richest people at the controls, benifiting from all of our losses. You want to find out who is to blame? Look around at who is left standing with cash after ten years of no income and you will have your answers. Are all rich people bad and to blame? No of course not, a full 1% of  the richest 1% are probably blameless.....

This is class warfare in it's most naked and gleaming state, balls to wall they have f'ed us...and you know what? They will get away with it scot free, because there is no accountability for these people anymore...not to mention the facts that all the agencies that deal with these sorts of crime have been slashed, that governments have been politicly neutered so that they only answer to those in charge(not the people) and all the checks and balances have been removed from the onslaught of greed.

Money now rules the world, and if you don't own a big chunk of it...sorry about yer luck pally!

Many of the Founding Fathers held to the belief that we probably needed a good revolution every 20 years or so, to keep our democracy lively, perhaps now is a good time for a class revolution to undo these sinister actions of the last 20 years that find us in this fix. Trouble is, who is going to pay to get us back to even?

This is the result of a nation of growing stupidity. People twice elected a stupid president, running a stupid government, making stupid policies, creating stupid environment, attracting stupid investors, generating stupid crisis.....no matter what, this nation is doomed!!!

"The fallen value of real estate" - interesting sentence start. Real estate was artificially propped up with funny money, and when that chicken came home to roost, guess what? Unfortunately, this all started with the inappropriate and mistaken "models" used by Wall Street to determine which loans were safe to be securitized - and boy (!) did they get it wrong!! Now, the entire world is paying the price for these egregious mistakes. Unlike the dot.com bust, where only investors in artificially inflated stock prices lost, this is hitting home buyers who are stuck with mortgages on homes worth considerably less than the mortgage (whether they can pay or not is irrelevant), investors who purchased these "securities" that are now greatly devalued, and finally - the tens of thousands of worker bees on Wall Street who lost their jobs. The people at the top get to keep their money and live in "dishonor"! Wow - give me 30-40 mil and I'll GLADLY live in "dishonor".

I was plannng to work ten more years - now I think I am on the work till I die plan!!!!

Does anyone know how to use a calculator? $700 billion dollars divided by the U.S. population of 305,520,377 would give everyone $2,291.17, not $1 million!

we could use the 200000 laid off wallstreeters, thats how many good americans it will take to enlist and give our kids overseas a much neaded break

we will work through this by the true and tested trickle up theory, be patient, it takes a long time to work and it will. i invested in educating my kids when the majority of americans thought the rich trickling down on them was a good idea, they will be here to  rebuild

Angie fantastic post.  Congress has dropped the ball on every occassion.  I wonder how many of them have large stakes in Wall Street.  I agree that the president is a figure-head sometimes and congress has the real power.  People need to learn that you can be president for 8 years, but a congress-person or justice forever.  I have an idea, put congress to term limits, put them on social security, put them on a 401k plan (vice their rediculous retirement they have now), put them on our Blue Cross Blue Shield and watch them jump to save the middle class.  I don't really know when the right time is for Pitchforks and Torches, but I do believe it is time for some real Constitutional Amendments.

Oh yah, the media has been horrible through all this.  I so enjoy the way they pick sides.

700 billion $ divided by 300 millon population is not anything close to $1 millon a person.  Do the math.  

There is a lot of hate being thrown at politicians and executives, but very little directed towards another group that is just as guilty.  This other group are the ones who bought houses, cars, toys, etc they could not afford (even by using 1st grade math to budget).  The biggest law that was violated was common sense, people taking out debt they could not pay back.  What's the central cause of this mess, people not paying their debt.  

It's one thing to have a hard time making ends meet when you are just buying the essentials.  Its another to be crying about this mess when you yourself rung up debt you can't pay by buying things that are not essential.  For everyone that can't pay off their credit card and mortgage balances every month give me 15 minutes in your house and a glance at your statements.  I'll find all the luxury items you wasted your money on that could have paid your bills.  The only caveat is if you were an idot who signed a mortgage that has monthly payments that exceed 50% of your take home income.

Don't judge an executive/politician unless you youreslf are living within your income means.  That means housing, transportation to work, food, clothing (basic clothing) and medical before IPODs, cell phone, cable, internet, dining out, nice clothes, nice car, jewlery, subscriptions, movies etc.

Yes, banks and government created a way for people to easily get credit they should not have had access to.  It takes two to tango and many people stepped up to sign on the dotted line when they shouldn't have.  Until those people take responsibility for their own part in this mess, we will not get out of it or prevent it from happening again.  

Are we that stupid that we need the government to tell us what we can and can not afford?  Do you want to get to the point that we have to clear a meal at Burger King through a goverment accountant to make sure we can afford it?  Thats what everyone is crying about, government didn't prevent us from making stupid mistakes and others profited from them.  Isn't that what America was inteneded to be a society were you live and die by your decisions and live with the awards or consequences of those decisions?

 Why blame the American people for believing their was no tomorrow. Remember Dietech. com- borrow the "equity" out of your home and spend it. Remember Greenspan. Who wouldn't borrow at 4 and 5 % while housing was rising faster than 10 %. Greenspan started to believe his own press clippings. He alone was the foundation of this disaster buy punishing savers and rewarding borrowers.

 Wallstreet crooks partyed hardy with never-ending cheap money, while their bought and paid-for politicians wrote the casino rules.

 While I might believe in any other circumstances that this is just an innocent, once in a lifetime event, it is only reasonable to conclude that this is the worst kind of conspiracy to rob the American people and destroy the country.

Kevin