When forward momentum is lost and gravity takes over.

And he's no economist... The problem is that there are no numbers on how many times those who "saw it coming" said it was coming and then nothing happened. I mean, if I say that something bad is coming every day, one day I'll be right. Most of the time I will be wrong. Not to defend Rubin...

a 65-year-old grandmother. I inherited some stocks from my Mother when she passed away three years ago. About a year and a half ago I decided I'd better investigate what the financial and stock market was all about. Up til then it was Greek to me....economics was the only class I got a C in in highschool. It didn't make any sense to me and I approached the subject with great reluctance. I read what I thought was gobbledygook, figuring if I exposed myself to it over a long enough period of time, some of it would finally make sense. I dutifully looked up the meanings of all the acronyms. I read Mish and Calculated Risk and a few other financial blogs. After a few months, I started to form an opinion...it appeared to me to be a giant Ponzi scheme...all those CDS's, MBS's, etc. Once I understood what they actually were, abstractions based on mathematical models, I said to myself "this is nutty...it has to collapse at some point". I cashed in most of my stocks (much to my brother's chagrin, since he is a financial advisor). So, with no economics background, a 65-year-old grandmother could see it coming. What does that say about those guys at the top?

All of Obama's apointees to financial posts have ties to Rubins and share his philosophy.