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Sept. 16 Readers' letters: Ronald Reagan Bridge offered as an alternative to Willie Brown Bridge



From Mercury News readers





Posted:   09/13/2013 01:10:50 PM PDT

Updated:   09/13/2013 01:10:50 PM PDT









Keep overextending until the next crash



Five years ago this weekend, the Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Today, the divide between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is as great as ever. According to one recent study, the top 1 percent has captured about 95 percent of the income gains since the recession ended. Since the recovery, almost all of the gains have gone to the very, very top. People who are in the top 1 percent are doing even better than they did before the Great Recession.



There is a rebound, and there are still people to be convinced that things will keep going up -- indeed, must keep going up. They, too, must be won over and convinced to overextend themselves, little by little. It is a gradual process of boom, then downturn, then bigger boom, then another downturn. And one day, when we have prepared accordingly, the downturn will become a recession, the recession will become a depression, and the depression will become the crash.



Ted Rudow III



Palo Alto























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