Great Tony Auth cartoon, declaring capitalism dead.

[alfredo]

[leftstreet]

1. LOL

:thumbsup:

[indepat]

2. Hot damn: Tony nails it again

:P

[alfredo]

3. You'll like these

[tigereye]

9. great! Rogers is hilarious!

[alfredo]

11. Cartoonist are having a lot of fun with limbug.

[malaise]

4. Perfect

K & R

[ewagner]

5. Did you notice

the cigar by the skeleton's right hand?

Limbaugh reference or cigar-smoking CEO?

[alfredo]

6. both. We need to ask the forbidden question: Is Capitalism dead.

[paulsby]

8. it's not forbidden

naysayers w/o historical perspective have claimed this MANY times - during recessions and of course the great depression.

capitalism (like stock and commodity markets) is cyclical.

it goes throug boom/bust cycles.

ALWAYS has

ALWAYS will

doesn't mean it's dead just because the economy currently has mass suckitude.

[alfredo]

12. It's fatal flaw is that it needs to be closely regulated or it implodes.

[paulsby]

14. a few things

1) it is regulated. in many areas it is not regulated enough (mortgages come to mind), in some areas, it's regulated too much (as any small business owner could tell you.

2) it is currently going through bust cycle. this will ALWAYS happen, no matter how much regulation you have. it is a fundamental element of capitalism

[alfredo]

16. Regulation helps smooth out the cycles. If someone was watching

AIG, maybe they'd still be viable.

[paulsby]

18. yes

we probably don't disagree that regulation is necessary.

heck, even the most libertarian economists think SOME regulation is necessary.

the devil is in the details - how much, where, etc.

[alfredo]

23. And as bush showed: the quality of regulators is important. The best

written laws mean shit if your regulators are corrupt.

[paulsby]

7. some people have no historical perspective

do you realize how many times naysayers have declared capitalism dead?

people need historical perspective here.

capitalism is not dead. we are in a recession. it may even go to full blown depression.

nearly all the metrics SUCK, with some exceptions (commodities are reasonably cheap, interest rates are low, etc.).

iow, our economy is sucking right now. interestingly, on a currency basis especially - europe is doing worse - witness the recent rise of the dollar vs. the euro in the currency markets (i'm short the dollar and long the euro fwiw).

but declaring capitalism dead because of the current situation makes about as much sense as the nimrods who deny global warming because of some recent cold snaps.

[alfredo]

13. Let's say free market capitalism may not be dead, but it might be time

to pull the plug on it.

[paulsby]

15. no nation on earth

has true free market capitalism.

we are relatively free. singapore significantly more so, for example. hong kong ditto.

we will ALWAYS see boom/bust cycles.

but we can regulate more intelligently.

[alfredo]

19. That's what I believe. Regulation can possibly make for gentler swings.

[SoCalDem]

10. Capitalism is not dead.. CANNIBAL-capitalism may be

as well as CRONY-capitalism.. Those two needed to die..

[many a good man]

17. Obama's mission, like FDR's, is to SAVE Capitalism

I think FDR had it easy compared to what Obama faces.

[alfredo]

21. What else can he do at this time?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. Isn't there a famous quote from Mark Twain on this subject?

Something about rumours and overstatement?

[alfredo]

22. But that's not the point of the cartoon, Obama is trying to bring it back, and

the Reps are urging him to let it die.