lol it's true, who cared about the FDIC when everyone's money was safe!

And I admit to searching the great depression recently too :/

Yeah me too ... but I don't live in NY so I wonder what the trend looks like nationwide

Great Depression, or Greatest Depression?

I've always cared about the FDIC. I never had much need to google it previously, though. Of course, I haven't googled it these days, either.

I think I caused the banking meltdown. Literally two days before the Indymac ordeal, I was at the counter at my bank, looking at the FDIC insurance seal, wondering if they actually did pay up if anything happened. So there you have it, I killed the banks.

I think there's a seasonal great depression disorder:

However we can find some comfort in the fact that people are still more concerned about Britney Spears:

I, for one, welcome our new financial overlord, Suze Orman.

I love when she plays "can I afford it."

"...Hey Suze! I want to buy a Hummer G3. The fuel efficient one. I've got $50,000 credit card debt, I make $30,000 a year, and I was going to take out a car loan. CAN I AFFORD IT?!?!!?"

@no.no.notorious: The best I saw was something like "Can I buy a Lamborghini with my $500,000 inheritance, even though I have $20,000 in credit card debt?" At some point, the question of maintenance came up. Her co-host asked Suze how much she pays to maintain her cars. Her response was something like "Which one, the Bentley or the Rolls-Royce?"

Eventually, she pointed out that she can afford those cars because she's Suze Orman. The little girl with her surprise inheritance, however, should listen to her boyfriend and invest it. But when (if) she has $5-$10 million, then she can consider it.

Can I Afford It should be a nightly news segment. Tho it really might be embarrassing what the general public would call in with.

I gave a crap about the FDIC before all this happened.

Again the greatest SNL skit ever:

Don't buy stuff you can't afford

@Michael Belisle: Best use of graphs ever. My hat is off to you, sir. Well done.

For a short time I worked for the FDIC. So I have cared for a while.

Seems like most people are interested in it because what's happening now is the EXACT reason the FDIC was created.

Reminds of when Colin Quinn did the news on SNL and he'd read a newspaper story before getting behind the desk. One time he read a long mumbo-jumbo column about mergers and fed loans and then he followed it up with something like this, "I know, you're wondering what the hell this has to do with me, it's boring and no one reads stuff like that but you wake up tomorrow and a can of soup costs $8 and you're wondering what happened."

Bah! Everybody knows that to be able to turn a normal Depression into a Great Depression you need to have Socialist Democrats in the White House and Congress.

Oooh, I fuond the SNL transcript from Colin Quinn reads the NYT:

:Now on Thursday in the business section, we have this story: "Newcourt Credit of Canada agreed to acquire AT&T Capital, a spinoff controlled by a unit of Nomura Securities of Japan for one point six billion, creating one of the biggest non-bank lenders." Now, I don't know what that means, you don't know what that means. You say, "Who cares?" ... Right? And then you wake up one morning and a can of soup is eight bucks, all right? ... Then you care. ...

So, you need to read the Times because of things like that. You know the difference. You see the guy on the train, he's got the Times, he's wearin' a London Fog, he's got on a six hundred dollar watch, the headline says "Senate Subcommittee meets House Judiciary" -- meanwhile, you're standing next to him in a Hard Rock Cafe bomber jacket ... you're reading the Post, you're lookin' at a picture of a naked woman makin' out with a robot, right? ... So, you can keep not readin' the Times but then you have only yourself to blame when you get into one of those political arguments with your friends - about the American reacquisition of the F-1 bombers. They're all spouting facts - and the only thing you can think of is one of Val Kilmer's speeches from Top Gun. ..."

This is simultaneously "depressing" and amusing for those of us who googled the Fed, and the great depression 15 years ago and have been warning everyone for 10 years that this was coming. The ones who learn from history? "Kooks" "Weirdos" "Dinosaurs" "Out of touch" "Protectionists" "Isolationists" etc.. etc.. etc..

uh yeah. but its not even slightly entertaing to "i told you so" anymore.

@UrbanKnight:

I'm so sorry you are not amused.. Could you stop ass-fucking our country now? How's that?