[merrylander]

If the economy is in the tank we can blame upper management. Companies today no longer invest in R&D but use profits to buy back shares. Our stupid system of quarterly reporting and paying higher management in stock rather than cash has CEOs doing anything and everything to keep Wall Street happy, regardless of whether it is in the best interests of the company or not. Considering that Greenspan and Ryan are disciples of Ayn Rand it is no wonder that things are screwed up. That b***h took nearly a thousand pages to say what Gordon Gekko did in three words.