A better place

I'm afraid that those responsibles are just heads of the Hydra. Cut them off and more will appear. Blowing up the roulette of speculation would make this beast starve to death. But who has such a big gun? Maybe the Duke! :)

No offense to anyone, but most of the time, the bank discussion reminds me strikingly of the lets-outlaw-games-and-game-development discussion. Nobody involved has the first clue on what he is talking about, but that doesn't stop him running off his mouth.

Usually, when something as complex as the crisis we are in right now happens, and you come up with a simple explanation (The banks are to blame! The politicians are to blame!), you are usually on to a part of the problem, but not on the problem itself. The crisis happened, because the worlds largest economy (the USA) have been living on tick for the last four decades. Sure, the banks had their part in this tragedy, as well as the politicians. But we have been living in a world where having debts was considered a sign of being well-adjusted to the times. Now we got the bill, and all of a sudden, EVERYONE is to blame... except for ourselves.

Usually, people would say "Banks make hojillions of dollars per SECOND, so why wouldn't they give me a loan to buy a house/found a company/get a car/go on holiday? Where is the risk in THAT?" Well, they did. And you (not you personally, but people in general) didn't pay back. And now, the banks are in trouble, and it's their own fault? Please. Yes, there was irresponsibility. But if you ask me, if a loan goes sour, BOTH sides are to blame.

You are right Tazo, but IMO it is completely senseless to continue paying the banks in order to try to keep this broken system alive. They need to change the rules, but nobody yet had the balls to do it. Instead, we continue to pay them our money which gets burned instantly.

I agree with Tazo, but there is more : the money is a debt ! have you ever thought how the money is created ? you can see a good explaination in Zeitgeist addenum, freely available on the web. it's alla our financial system we must rethink.

Lets just say this, there are people who ARE responsible for the financial mess. Briefly (yes this could get into very long)..

(1) Politicians who listen to (2) bankers because they are great in lobbying things into bankers' interest. For an example, anyone with sound financial knowledge can actually see a big trouble looming when the loan is given *easily*. Bankers know this, but they didn't want to stop it because it is what make them rich.

In this modern world, it is precisely revolving around *interest*. Banks interest need to be protected, politicians are to be protected too which result in suffering consumers which can be seen today.

Let me add further, politicians are supposed to protect civilian interest, but in this case it is not. It is the politician and bankers interest are being protected... but bankers are definitely laughing all the way to bank..

Here is a 30 minutes long cartoon about what's wrong with the financial system: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU&feature=player_embedded#

@Tazo, commercial banks do not own money, they borrow money (with interest) from the central bank and land that money (with interest) to the people. So, you see, the commercial banks are responsible if they can't return back money to the central bank, just like ordinary people are responsible if they can't return money back to the commercial bank. Furthermore, money is printed out of the thin air. When you borrow such money, you are actually promising to return money by some (hard) work in the future. While you are actually working, they (banks) are just playing games with your money.

We should build only one NASA project, with a BIG space shuttle, and invite all our politicians friends to a trip to the moon!
The slogan could be: "Yes you can! Be one of the firsts politicians to rule the moon".
The funny part is that we dont tell them that is a only way voyage... OH YES! This should be really cool! All earth problems would ended! :)