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So the oracle of Wall Street – Monsignor Greenspan – is in a state of “shocked disbelief.” How is it possible that the famous croupier of our Faustian retirement funds could lose confidence in the house? It just goes to show that the entire idea of a 401K was ludicrous in the first place. Saving for retirement at the casino of American corporations, all while the fat cats enjoyed the buffet was nonsensical. Let us admit it; we would all be better off under state sponsored socialism. Rather than try to lie as make pretend nobility, by endlessly fudging the annual reports, it would be much easier to grovel as slaves in the soup line. Let us only hope that they rotate the flavors every so often.

We will know that it is truly all over when the prized jewels of the American system – Google and Apple – are sold off at the same price as those wretched whores of yesteryear – General Motors and Wachovia. We can look forward to the time when PE, forward guidance, profits, and earnings are as irrelevant as the color of paint on the wall of the lobby. We are rapidly approaching that event horizon where reality does not matter, and belief in anything of value is evaporating. Even gold is going down. And for those holding on to their prized cash, taking care not to fraternize with their neighbors, lest they hit them up for a loan, the inflation non-adjusted government economic stimulus and “investment” plans will take care of them in due time.

Who could have known that we would be in such shit? Certainly not the people we voted for.

In a bizarre Faustian twist, I read in the paper yesterday that despite the subprime meltdown, the crash on Wall Street, real estate prices in my neck of the woods went up 7% year to date from October 2007 through October 2008.

Go figure, it would seem that the real estate crash, like the real estate boom, was a localized phenomena. Unlike, of course, the stock markets and the credit markets, which are global in nature. What is odd is how such a local phenomena can have such widespread consequences.

They said that Social Security would fail by 2047. They said Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. They told us that Iran would obliterate Israel.

The real threat however was the variable rate loan; the ARM that no one saw comming that destroyed the western world. We mortgaged our future, and true to Faustian form we could not make the payments on the Credit Default Swaps.