I'm probably as confused as the rest of America this morning. How did all these super smart, freakish even, Ivy League grads screw this up so badly? Aren't they America's best and brightest on Wall Street? I'll tell you how. Hubris, greed, complete and utter ignorance to what is happening in the world, you name it.
When you start receiving pay packages north of $1M per year, things get a bit fuzzy and unclear. When $5M is the norm, prices don't even matter anymore. Past $1oM and you probably don't even consider what is happening to the price of gas in NJ let alone what the summer house in the Hamptons is going to run you for maintenance over the course of the season. Seriously, let's talk about being disconnected from reality. That's what happened to these massive, over bloated investment banks on Wall Street.
Now they are receiving bailouts for their poor performance in the fashion of either a Fed infusion or a lucrative buyout offer from BofA. Talk about the rich keeping the rich afloat. It's not about what's good for the economy at this point. While there will be painful results from this, we'll live. It's about keeping all their prep school buddies in their S550s and in the stands for the US Open. Its' about screwing the little guy again who is left holding the tax bag to help out these idiots who took too many risks and are now paying the price.
If there is one thing that I have shown in my writings on this blog, I'm all about the survival of the fittest. If your coffee sucks, you're going to lose business. If your cars suck, people will go elsewhere. Well, in finance, if your decisions suck, you should go out of business. Pay the price and hold yourselves accountable dammit!
I must agree. Most of the stories you read are gloom and doom out there. It's pretty bad when everywhere you turn, there is a picture of a line at the bank, $5.00 gas, a foreclosure sign, filthy jalapenos, etc. It's getting a bit ridiculous and seemingly only getting worse if you believe the prophets of doom in the media. I say ENOUGH!
Let's look at the positives that we get to experience every day:
- We get to live in the best country in the world, hands down. Although with less Starbucks on every corner, we're just not as caffeinated.
- The bowel pains from salmonella will help remind you to watch what you eat.
- We get to experience freedom like nowhere else. Let's give it up for EZ-Pass!
- We'll all be in much better shape as a result of biking and walking everywhere since we can't afford to fill our SUVs.
- Fear, mistrust, self-loathing is all a state of mind. Stay positive about the stock market and invest now instead of selling off! Fortunes are made in recessions....by people with more money than you.
- We are much better off than our forefathers were 50 years ago. I mean they didn't even have blogs to tell us what to think.
- The internet provides every potentially laid off worker an outlet to make money from home. From Ebay to WOW to Second Life, the possibilities are endless.
- Once this down period is over, it can only get better! Think of the good times ahead! Now I'm not saying put it all on plastic to pay it off later but we're not as far away as you might think.
Seriously though, I think that a little positive attitude will really help this country get its act back on track. We haven't had a crisis like this in 25 years where we need to band together, show some grit and remind the world who we are! It's time to remember that we are the big dog on the block and not some sniveling little bichon frise that we've been acting like for the last 4 years.
What else do we need to do at this point to bolster our fledgling economy. This morning's move by the Treasury and the Fed to save the two large mortgage giants is just another tiny step to fixing what's wrong with the system right now. Granted, stricter lending requirements and more oversight into the secondary credit markets will help in the long run, but let's face it, rules were meant to be bent and broken.
Regardless of what is done to fix the problem now, it will only breed a new level of creativity from shyster brokers and credit lenders. We have to correct the problem, not the symptom. If I'm Dan Mudd from Fannie Mae and this is how my ineptitude and complete ignorance of a problem is rewarded, why am I going to change? If I keep printing money for myself and the other executives while getting a handout from the government to prop my failing business model back up on wobbly legs; why bother doing it differently?
Maybe it's time to send a message to this whole industry. There is no safety net or security blanket. You have to make your business work or it will fail. Along with that, many people will go broke and have misery thrust upon their lives. When faced with adversity, it's either sink or swim and now is the time for some adversity in the American public. A panacea bailout is not the solution.
Well, I've been a bad blog friend. You had me for a few months on a weekly basis and then, BAM! I take a month off just after I promised that I was back. This time I truly am.
Let's review what's happened since I last wrote. The economy is still tanking, houses are still foreclosing, Starbucks still can't sell coffee to caffeine addicted worker bees, oil is still hovering near $20000 a barrel, gas is still overpriced, people are still stupid and we're still only a few months from being more like France and Canada then we ever thought we'd be. So what do I have to write about that's new and novel?
How about the new iPhone that effectively screws all the previous owners by selling at 1/2 the price with three times the speed? How about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who are shocking the baseball world? What about my hometown Celtics finally winning #17? Nope, I want to talk common sense.
What is America doing with all it's new found wealth (our lucrative tax rebates...) in the last few weeks? Spending it to stimulate the economy? Saving it to stave off future debt? Paying off high interest credit cards? No! They are basically handing it over to Big Oil and the rest of the fossil establishment. They're paying more for food, clothing and getting to work than they ever have! While a tax rebate is nice, wasn't this just a correction for how bad everything has been screwed up in the economy lately?
My common sense thought of the day is this. First the question, what can we all do to lower the impact of fuel costs on our lives? Stop eating so much! Stop driving so much! Stay home with your family and get to know them! Work from home if you can! Stop driving your Humvees and SUVs one mile to the post office! Send an email, not a posted mail! Send a message that we don't need as much as we're currently consuming and watch the prices fall. Simplicity is king in life and if you don't have it, get some.
Well it's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Sticky Jello world but now its back to the task at hand! Good current event satire.... I'd like to think of myself more as an astute media observer but I keep getting hung up on "astute". That being said, today is more of a personal post.
The family and I are gearing up for a big operation for our son this Friday and that has really captured the majority of our focus. It really makes you prioritize things in your life quite myopically. I don't want to say that work, hobbies, etc. have taken a back seat but I don't think about them nearly as much as what my son is going to endure the next few weeks.
How do you cope with this 24/7 world when someone you love is in crisis? What is the first thing that you cut out? The last?
What are we going to do? First we give everyone a tax rebate, then all the market sages say "Save it, don't spend it!", then consumer spending drops. Go figure!
The vast majority of the US populace knows the equivalent of nothing about economics. Any advice that is given to them is going to be followed, at least half the time. Everyone is talking about a recession, high gas prices, mortgage failures, so everyone is buckling down. When it costs more than a year's tuition at Yale to buy gas to go to Walmart, is it any surprise that people aren't spending money?
What I would look for with all this economic goodness is an increase in online spending (correlated with a significant rise in shipping costs) as consumers look for alternative ways to shop.
The larger issue is that we have to come to grips with the fact that this isn't going away. Our dollar is cheap, goods are expensive and life is harder right now. Life on a budget isn't fun and America is finally learning this fact.
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Blog Category: Technology Blogs
Blog Owner: Derek Tomlinson
Blog Added: February 20, 2008 04:54:11 PM
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