Should the Causers of Recessions/Depressions Hang?

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No, there is a difference. Real estate brokers that encouraged people to over-state their income (and then approved the application as verified) actually did something wrong - as did the the loan applicant. People that did stupid things with derivatives also actually deserve a big slice of blame - they can't be punished unless they broke the law, but they cannot be exculpated.

They won't be punished because they continue to wield power. This is not Stalinist USSR where powerful people were stripped of power and shot or sent to Siberia... I think that's what they really find shocking about regimes like Stalin's, that people with power were at greater danger than everyone else.

yeah good luck with that. face it, america has entered its twilight. in the middle east its just dawn.[/quote]

While the U.S. may be fading (a distinct possibility) the intellectual light went out in the Uma around the 13th century c.e.. Islam had a brief flourishing of intellect which was extinguished by the religious bigots and hard-liners. Just as the light was going out in Persia and in the Andulus (in Spain) the beat was being picked up in Europe which imported the Greek classics preserved and translated by Arab and Jewish scholars. That is how most of what we have of Aristotle (for example) made it back to Europe (by way of the Byzantine Empire).

ruveyn

yeah all thats true but it doesn't pertain to anything i have said. my point the that the geo-political, economic, and military power of the middle-east will continue to grow and will eventually become a force to be reckoned with on the world stage, whereas americas power and role in international politics will diminish. of course the middle east wont be the only previously ignored region to whom the west will have to start listening: brazil, india, indonesia will all emerge as important players, not to mention china which is already richer the the USA

in summary: lol america is f****d

Given that the middle east's economy is based upon petroleum and basically nothing else, I would not trust it's success. It is not necessarily true that oil will continue to drive economies, and if it stops, then the middle east is relatively dead in the water. Heck, given what seems to be the case about their economic policies, if oil loses it's importance to any extent, these countries *are* dead, as the economic policies for some of the larger countries seem terrible at a first glance.

China's GDP is still much lower than the US's, so I do not know what sense you talk about when you say they are richer, because their GDP is still less than half of ours.

less debt = richer than. in terms of gdp yeah americas richer, but if you factor in future economic prospects china has a bright future to look forward to whereas the economy of the US will continually diminish

as for oil if you have one of the fastest growing populations in world you wont necessarily need oil exports to facilitate economic growth. also countries like iran, iraq, lebanon and syria have a highly educated populace and economies that are becoming diversified, once oil exports start dropping it'll hardly mean the end of economic progress

That's a very funny definition of richer you got there.

Hrm, actually, if they reimbursed all the money that they've conned out of people, that "could" be enough for them to keep their lives. ;p