My uncle worked 30 years at the dam and retired to a trailer a couple of miles below it in the canyon. I just don’t see that kind of faith in a job well done today.

In the past, government spending built this massive piece of infrastructure that is still a critical component of the regional economy. Today’s government prefers to help people buy and sell bloated assets back and forth.

I was visiting Grand Coulee Dam this past Saturday as well. We got there Friday evening and stayed at one of the local motels. The laser light show at the dam that evening was amazing! We toured the dam on Saturday.
Grand Coulee is truly a wonder and shows what hard working Americans can accomplish when the going gets tough.

We may end up in another global depression. But please don’t look to the government to fix it again. These massive works are a tribute to man’s ability and a testament to government impotence.

I think we are both writing the same thing. I agree they are using populist arguments to fight for a bailout. My only contention is that a bailout will never help you or me or homeowners in foreclosure (except accidentally). The big names know who they are fighting for and it is themselves.

I’ve also encouraged the small staff at our office to take the market in for all it’s worth because they are witnessing history unfold in the real estate & mortgage markets. I felt it important for them understand the mechanics behind our business and what makes it ebb and flow.

The dam is amazing. I have not been to Ground Zero, yet.

If this doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will. I keep cracking up over the “parking for 4″. It looks like a miniature barbie doll house.

You may be right, but he writes his opinions pragmatically without conclusion, giving alternatives to the subprime mess. He may fear something as bad as a Great Depression, if something isn’t done. He’s always been clearly predicting a real estate bubble and potential hard landing [like us]; even when the rest of MSM thought he was nuts and/or wished he was nuts.

He was the old economic advisor for Clinton, so may have the new world order masses in front of the American Middle Class’ future [when did that become a Democratic platform?].

I do like Roubini’s detailed insights on the current subprime mess and he offers all sides on his blog.

I am visiting the great metropolis of Pullman once again. Maybe we will swing by the dam on the way back.

I have had opportunities to converse with relatives who were around during the great depression. These were people who would carefully save rubber bands and shoelaces because they really had lived the “waste not, want not” philosophy out of necessity. I believe most of us in this country today do not know what REAL poverty is really like – things like not being able to afford shoes, or not knowing where your next meal is coming from. My grandfather went from being a successful construction business co-owner to selling pots & pans door to door to support his family during the depression. Many of us in this country take a lot for granted these days.

(preach mode off)

I am not so sure. I realize they just want to help their own positions, especially Gross, but it is obvious from Cramer that they know they need to push it as a form of populism rather than bail out the bankers. This would both the scumbag banks and their borrowers while screwing everyone who had not bought in the last 5 years. But they will be able to frame the argument such that being against it means you want precious children to be homeless and elderly people to die in the snow. The bankers know a bailout only for them in politically untenable, so the next best thing is a bailout for themselves with a little kickback to the fools.

Data from 2004-05 is not 7 years old unless you’re from the future. The next time you tell someone to read the fine print, you might want to read it yourself first.

Don’t worry about a bailout. Does anyone even know what a working bailout would look like? Lowering the FED rate to 5% isn’t a bailout, but it will help psychology. And I’m convinced that’s all the likes of Gross and Roubini and Cramer really want. They want psychology strengthening so they can get out of their positions over the next 3 months.

So that’s your bailout. The rich get to hand the bags off to someone else.

See his 27 August 2007 letter:

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/212479/

Read these blogs from all opinions, not much support for status quo, no not at all:

http://www.steinreport.com/archives/010700.html#comments

See the proof in Arizona, coming to a your town too:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0826sanctionsimpact08260.html

The parallels of being on Wall Street, being in the housing business with all the stuff going down and then learning of the reasons for the Grand C. Dam being built had me thinking “could it happen again?”

He joined the CCC at 15, where he learned surveying skills. When WWII arrived, the Army recruited him to map trajectories, which kept him off the front lines and taught him cartography. Upon returning to the US, he joined the USGS and traveled the country mapping some of the most wild areas of the continent. I have a bit of a map fetish myself, and always scan a quadrangle map for his name.

When I moved to Washington State, he told me that I must visit the Grand Coulee Dam, as in all his travels, he never had the opportunity. I wish he could see it. As geography geek myself, I know he’d be fascinated by the contrast between the desert and Lake Roosevelt and the tremendous effect the project has had on the Columbia Basin.

As a freshman, two things about this story struck me. First, the job with the CCC, which he described as, “moving a bunch of "golly" rocks around all day,” began a slow process of acquiring more refined skills, which eventually led to a life-long career doing something he enjoyed.

Second, to this day, he is a man who never uses credit. He’s never even had a gas card. If he can’t afford it, he goes without. My great uncle explained that as the youngest, it was my grandfather’s responsibility to pick up the food from the welfare office, and he would run through the back alleys to avoid the embarrassment of being seen. This is a town where the entire population was on welfare. His basement is stocked with about a year’s worth of canned fruits and vegetables from his garden, which he still tends.

The Depression was an incredibly humbling lesson he’s never forgotten.