How can you trust a body that operates like that. Imagine running a company like that.

The only options are a system with where minor laws are passed dishonestly or Stalin.

a country is not a company

OK. But I was not taking the analogy very far. I'm saying that if bills are passed by tacking on little unrelated clauses that benefit the particular interests of certain politicians while flying under the radar in order to bypass democracy, you lose some respect & trust in an institution. It also makes me leery of anyone that thrives in the environment.

These institutions are decision making bodies making decision on behalf of others.

BTW - Apparently (see the comment on substitute bill), this is just a technical trick to bypass paperwork & speed this along.

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide earnings assistance and tax relief to software developers, information architects and dolphin trainers

In my opinion this is a good thing. You can't have unchecked growth forever. You need to have a downturn to jolt consumer confidence and investor confidence.

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

or since most ppl assumed they had that money and spent other money on that assumption, it could also be called 'wealth destruction'

When your portfolio "dropped" today you didn't gain or lose anything. You still own the same tiny fraction of some company. All that happened is that some guy sold his tiny fraction to some other guy for less than you paid.

At least, that's how I understand it. I was curious if the original commenter meant something different.

Computers are depreciated around 3 years.

The above is true only if a purchase is "capitalized" and classified as an asset. This "depreciation" allows you to deduct a loss per that 3 or 5 years on your taxes, or incrementally decrease your assets on your balance sheet.

If it is not capitalized and classified as an asset, it is an expense. An expense is noted on the income statement and the entire cost is accounted for in that quarter.

The money itself is only as good as the wealth it can purchase, and as that wealth steadily grows, we need more money to carry out the transactions. So it is by no means a zero sum game.

Just read this http://pavankumar.info/?p=52 , If I am wrong, Please let me know.

you are clueless dude... there is wealth creation and wealth destruction. try an econ 101 course!

wealth could have been transferred today if people were allowed to short securities, but what actually happened to many was the realization of losses on the books of the finance industry - at least those who bought for the short term.

but you also have wealth being transferred to those who have been holding stock for several years (long term) and watched them wildly appreciate over the past 5 years, and started selling in the past 2 weeks when they realized the bubble has burst.