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Sully, it is possible to learn from the past but, apparently, we aren't doing a very good job of it. Don't have the time (or energy) to fully learn all the ins and outs of the S&L crisis and bail-out of the 70's and 80's but a cursory read and aging memories make the underlying causes (inflated real estate values, deregulation and greed) appear essentially the same as those of the current economic crisis. Depending on the size of your company, I might not be at all surprised at how little information it took to get a $100,000 loan. One of my nephews has been in the on-line credit rating business since its inception -- and I usually am surprised by how much information they can quickly and easily provide on quite modest businesses. As for the current and immediately past crops of Repub & Dem politicians, I've tried hard to figure out how to phrase a response that doesn't bash them unfairly (there have always been crooked politicians) but, quite frankly, it appears to me that even those who truly believe they are personally honest are now using a moral standard that most of us wouldn't accept in our own lives -- or among our friends.

Although I see no evidence the current President is leading us toward socialism, if he were the only thing that would make it possible are the previous efforts of the conservatives to establish a laissiz faire government that lead directly to such miserable failures. Economic and political theory make find discussion topics but in real life they live in a sea of peoples with vastly different experiences and aspirations. I surmise that's why Marx's theories, formed by experiences in industrialized Germany, took such unanticipated forms in Russia and China -- at least to the extent these "communists states" paid any more than casual lip service to them. From this I deduce it's highly likely any theories or concepts of socialism formed in ferment of industrializing Europe in the 19th and early 20th century would take a very different form in the 21th century United States. As to Saul Alinsky, I read just enough to learn (as anticipated) that he is two completely different people depending upon whether one is reading right or left wing propaganda. Since, as you may have figured out by now, I don't put any faith in either, think I'll just stand pat and watch what happens between now and the run up to the 2012 election before getting my knickers in a twist (for us in the west 2010 will most likely be mainly about local issues, e.g., energy development and its environmental and economic costs to local communities -- even for national level offices). If I learned anything in the last eight years it's that while a lot of damage can be done in two presidential terms, it's doesn't appear to be enough to be fatal. Only thing that has me worried is the possibility of back to back two term presidencies each doing the same level of damage. That one has me crossing my fingers.

PS: are you really sure Chrysler learned anything from the K-car? They sure seemed to have held on to making some of least fuel efficient SUVs and pick-ups in the market until awfully late in the game -- and, when I tried to get my fire department to considered one of their larger models as the chassis for a new brush truck I sure got an earful about their lousy quality control and dependability. Seem to remember something about the latter in relation to the K-car as well.