Zombie Nation

I thought I was still dreaming. I woke up one morning and the America I knew and loved was gone. People were detached from reality. In public, they wandered aimlessly in slow monotonous pace. Their mouths spewed indiscernible mumbles under their rapid breath, swaying with a glazed stupor in their eyes, unable to engage in general discourse. Logically, it would appear I was describing transition to decay in a movie like Dawn of the Dead. But what is happening now might be scarier. I decided to investigate the cause of a lethargic nation and where better to find the basis of any fear based pandemic than the cesspool of American Culture; TV. 

 

With a finger fixated on the kill switch, I flipped on a television and began to explore the basis of American befuddlement. It all became clear. All the major news stations, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, ABC and even fake stations like Fox were spewing infection. Headlines and news articles continued to post the treacheries and confusions. It was hour after hour, headline after headline of jargon rich, economic talk with no clear answers and no clear prognosis. Terms like Collateralized Debt Obligations, LIBOR, Credit Default Swaps, Netting, Leverage, Sub-Prime Mortgage, IMF, FED Interest Rate, Troubled Assets, Money Markets and Mortgage-Back Securities were injected into common language leaving people spinning away from reality.

 

I will be the first to admit; sometimes I will sit out an important news story. I won't look up the causes or dive into the story and will be left to sit on the bench waiting for the story to pass. Ask me today about the recent Jordan/Russian conflict and I could give you a synopsis fit for a 3rd grader. But this was bigger. This was the...Credit Crisis.

 

More and more people are holding their breath, waiting for this story to pass. But every economic indicator and headline of major newspapers continue to marvel us with "Record Low" stock performance or "Record High" Interest Rate". This one, unfortunately, is not going away.

 

So, is the only solution to download the TRAP bill and read the 716 page document in its entirety? Should we withdraw all our money and use it to pad our devalued houses and slowly go crazy mumbling London InterBank Offer Rate? Quite the contrary, I found the antidote. In a sea of nonsensical, incoherent, and meaningless talk, I have found the solution. Simplicity. 

 

As the first part of simplifying where all the money has gone, I will start with this video. Put best by Martin Fischer "Knowledge is the process of piling up fact; wisdom lies in their simplification". We are in an era of information but wisdom is fleeting quickly. Let’s all do our parts.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.