[Blahgzilla]

I know I'm probably going to piss someone off with my Hindenburg reference. "A human tragedy like this cannot be mocked, people died for christ's sake", is what the PC pinko bleeding-heart set will cry. Well to those who start howling, I can justify the statement effectively enough that you will see the analogy. If not, or you just wanna be pissed about something, kiss my ass. So, if you will be so kind as to indulge me, I'll explain....I'll try not to run on too much.

First, a little history. In the 1930's, Germany trying to rebuild itself after being decimated in the Treaty of Versailles. When the Nazi's came to power, a great deal went into rebuilding it's military, in violation of the treaty. A great deal also went into rebuilding the German spirit, with the ability for the everyday German to own a car, take a trip, have a house. There were a great number of advancements in the area of flight as well, as the Germans expaned the airship technology they developed in WWI. These new giant airships, which bore the name of the company that made them, began making commercial trans-atlantic voyages. Travelling from Berlin to New York by Zeppelin would be a luxurios experience, almost like being in a floating ocean liner. The Zeppelin Hindenburg, named for the President of Germany, made several trans-atlantic journeys, both taking passengers, and as a propaganda tool for the Nazi's.

The Zeppelins were filled with several million cubic feet of Hydrogen to make the lighter than air. At the time, the Germans had no means of acquiring the much safer Helium, althouh the U.S. did, being at the time the largest producer of the inert petroleum based gas. It had to have been a kind of rush for anybody that ever flew on her, knowing that they were flying in a giant bomb.

During the construction of the Hindenburg, a doping compound was applied to the outer skin to serve as a weatherproofing agent. It contained a cellulose acetate or nitrite (used in gunpowder). The doping compund was then coated with aluminum nitrate (rocket fuel). So, a highly flammable gas and rocket fuel? In short, I'm sure somebody saw it coming. It's thought that static electricity travelled between the ground and the Hindenburg, causing the highly flammable skin of the airship to catch fire. Once this started, it couldn't be stopped, and the Hindenburg crashed to the ground in flames.

Forward to today, and the mortgage crisis in the U.S. . I suppose we should start establishing our metaphors so the part of the Hindenburg will be played by the economy. The part of the Financial Markets will go to the giant gas filled bags inside the Hindenburg, keeping her afloat. The part of the explosive doping compund coating the ship will be the Clinton administration, especially Cisneros, and the part of The Aluminum Nitrate will be played by the greedy Wall Street speculators. The charge of static electricity will play the part of Rising Interest Rates.
Although the real cause of the crisis is much more complicated than this, it is essentially what happened. The Clinton administration wanted to make sure that low income Americans would be able to own their own homes. This was a very noble gesture, but one that was frought with economic peril. The sheer number of homes that have been or are about to be foreclosed on, is a testament to this. It essentially meant that money was lent to very high risk lenders, and that the speculators on Wall Street could gamble with the debt incurred by those who could ill afford it.


I am not saying that the Clinton administration is solely responsible for this disaster, but they certainly created the environment that allowed it to happen. So too, all those who would listen to every word uttered by Alan Greenspan and take it as gospel. As everyone would come to find out, Greenspan was very much mistaken when he said that there was no housing bubble.

Much like the Hindenburg, it took a number of different errors, compounded with volatility, to cause the economy to explode the way it has. In the wake of the Hindenburg disaster, airships would no longer use hydrogen to be lighter than air. There will have to be a great number of changes take place in order to ensure we don't see another economic meltdown as we are experiencing now.

We can only wait and see what happens next.