This was a question in my GRE Prep program in the category of sentence completion.  I thought it was quite poignant given what’s going on in our nation’s economy:

The population’s —- complacency with regard to the risks involved in investing in the stock market was an indication of the hubris of an age in which most people had never experienced real —-.

Answer:  excessive… hardship

Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth?  I mean, what *tremendous* hubris these pricks on Wall Street had to keep selling these bullshit investments, just packaging and repackaging and selling again, then selling insurance to doubtful buyers.  I asked my mother today as the market fell AGAIN by 200 points at the opening bell this morning, after a drastic 700 points last week, and as we’re hearing about the tremendous effects this is having on the world’s economy…did NO ONE see this coming?  She said of course people saw it coming but no one wanted to be the one to stay stop this…they were making too much money.   And then this GRE prep question explains so much.  The guys that got us into this mess…this is a generation that has never seen real hardship.  They cannot understand it, and even KNOWING the huge risks they were taking, NEVER could even imagine in their wildest dreams what extreme circumstances lay ahead.  My grandfather, who born in 1920 and lived through the great depression, would NEVER…..EVER have taken such gigantic risks.  But that’s how history repeats itself isn’t it?  The ones in power don’t pay attention to the foolish mistakes made by those before them.  Or they tell themselves this time is different.  Shame on all of you greedy bastards…shame on you.   I hope you enjoyed your excessive wealth while it lasted.  I hope you had fun with all your money.

A good article that outlines where much of my anger comes from:

Wall Street contrarian James Grant asks: Why no Outrage?

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1014244.shtml