[Elspode]

Zen is essentially dead on, here. The other side of this economic coin is repayment of loans/mortgages. The securities that were made by bundling together dicey loans had a *theoretical* value based on the interest that would have been earned had people actually made payments on those loans. People couldn't pay on mortgages that were made because they shouldn't have been able to get those mortgages in the first place, and so those created securities yielded...zip.

The financial growth of the past decade in this country has been illusory, a puff of smoke. The precursor to it was the dotcom bust, where speculative investment ultimately was lost because there was *nothing underpinning the investments*. It has been an economy based on vaporware, essentially, and worse, it has all been driven by *credit*. Credit which no one is now able to repay.

The infusion of cash to the banks that our government has undertaken is being used at present to simply stabilize their own asses. They aren't putting the money into play so that the economy can stabilize.

Doesn't matter, though, because *that* money isn't based on anything, either. The Fiat system of finance has hit the wall. Without jobs, we can no longer be consumers. Without natural resources, we can no longer sell anything.

Ultimately, all we have is the fruit of our labors and the raw materials we can peddle on the open market. And we're out.