Well, it's time for this week's edition of "Thoughts for a Wednesday" since I only seem to post on Wednesdays lately. And so with no further ado, hear some things I've run across/been kicking around in my head.
1 - Money can bring out the worst in people. The new facts that have come to light about the whole salmonella/peanut butter scandal are absolutely disgusting. When the bottom line becomes more important than doing the right thing, like protecting our food supply from easily preventable diseases, then a price should be paid by those that perpetrated this crime. In a way, this is just as much a form of terrorism as seizing airplanes and crashing them into buildings.
Then you have the whole $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. Now it seems that his wife withdrew $15 million of real cash right before he turned himself in. It is unbelievable what some people can get away with. And don't even get me started with the members of Congress - whoops, I mean the elected members of the Tax Dodgers club. It kills me that half of my hard-earned paycheck goes to someplace in DC, while these people get away without paying their due.
2 - Last night I saw the premiere of "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: 45 Days to Go" on MTV. Wow. If you judge from a premiere of a show, this is one chilling, amazing docu-reality show. For those who don't know, T.I. is a rapper who was convicted last year by the federal government of possessing firearms, which he was not allowed to have since he was a convicted felon at the time. You might know him from his current hit song with Rihanna, "Live Your Life". This show is as much about him explaining where he has come from and why he did what he did and the 1000 hours of community service that he must perform, as it is about his mission to go to 7 strangers and help them turn their lives away from "the streets" to a more stable and full life. Last night's episode focused on this kid that he knew named Lil' Pee Wee who was a hustler. Talk about intensity. I don't want to give too much away because I want people to see it for themselves. But let me just say that it opened my eyes and broke my heart to actually see the reality of this way of life that I am sheltered from in my little small town. Much like my trip to Nicaragua back in 2004 threw real third world poverty in my face, this showed me a side of American life that was hard to see.
3 - I maintain that The Dark Knight was robbed. There is no way that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should have 13 nominations, except maybe in the makeup category. And if you need any further proof, check out this video that my friend Rebekah pointed out to me.
4 - I feel really sad about the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna situation. They seemed like such a cute couple, two really good, cool, and immensely talented people. It makes you wonder what in the world happened that it would make Chris Brown do what it seems that he did? It makes me wonder if he will be able to bounce back from this. I sort of hope so, because it again just makes me so sad to see such a talent go to waste because of a really, really, really stupid decision. But what he is being accused of is pretty serious stuff. I guess we will just have to wait and see, but again, what a real, real shame.
5 - Lost is on tonight!!!! Hallelujah and holler-ation - cannot flippin' wait. This must be the real reason why I have subconsciously only been posting on Wednesdays, just so that I can continue to promote the best television show on TV. Also, no lie, Rebekah and I literally spent probably 3 of our 4 hour drive to Wilmington/Carolina Beach this past weekend theorizing about all the different loose ends and mysteries of the show. If you want a semi-spoiler of where this show will be going this season, check out this latest story on www.ew.com, the best site to find whacked out theories and recaps of my favorite show.
6 - My love affair with ABDC still continues. I literally could and do watch the reruns of this show over and over and over again and I am continuously amazed by these kids' talent. I wish I had some sense of rhythm like they do. But alas, my role seems to be relegated to just appreciating their off-the-charts talent. I believe that the final two is going to come down to Beat Freaks and Qwest crew - they are both just ridiculously awesome.
Showing posts with label capitalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capitalism. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Chaos on Wall Street?
What is going on with the financial markets? Is it really bad? And how did we get here? And is it over?
I wish I knew - but the problem of a free market economy and capitalism is that these downward spirals happen and sometimes take a while to get out of. This is not the Great Depression - we don't have breadlines for the majority of the nation yet.
This article is one of the best that I have read while trying to sift through the various news media outlets to find out the truth about what is going on. It details why we are in the mess that we are in, and why this is not going to be over anytime soon unfortunately. And also why no politician is going to be able to fix this problem, despite their promises of "regulation" (because Sarbanes-Oxley works soooo well...riiightt). No, unfortunately, the way that this problem is going to be fixed is banks need to start giving out loans again (but only to those who are fiscally responsible - ie, buy and pay what they truly can afford!), commodity prices and inflation need to go down, the dollar needs to strengthen, and the drop in pricing for houses needs to bottom out.
And while we are blaming the housing industry/market, let's also throw some of that blame onto Alan Greenspan during his reign at the Fed that allowed these interest rates to increase inflation above the average American's wage, and make borrowing money (ie, "credit") easier than it should have been for that American. So those people buying the McMansions (that are now foreclosing in droves), 4 luxury cars, and sending their kids to private school were overextending themselves after all, and now can't pay their bills and thus are sending Wall Street into turmoil, because they can't pay back the amount of debt they owe and have to foreclose and the banks have to write down that debt. Coupled with the fact that someone decided it would be great to make some money off of the amount of debt that someone else owes, we find ourselves in a "credit crisis". Yeah, that was a brilliant idea - make money off of negative money - that'll work! Because eventually that money will be paid off right, and since it is accumulating interest, that lump sum will be worth even more? Turns out nope - they actually couldn't pay back the loan, because they never had the money in the first place - and YET someone approved them for a loan. And then it gets all technical with the types of loans given out - adjustable interest percentage rates mortgages or interest only loans, where none of the principal was being paid down, and the loan money kept going up and up - and Wall Street placed bets on that, never foreseeing that the assets that people were banking on (their homes) were NEVER WORTH THAT MUCH!
Now that the housing bubble has burst and continues to plunge, and continues to be exasperated by Wall Street's lack of foresight, we the consumer will continue to suffer, because the commodities that we need to go down (energy, inflation, agriculture) continue to the do the opposite - they go up, weakening our dollar and deflate the purchasing power of the average American because companies have to raise their prices in order to account for the cost of commodities going up.
It is making me nervous that the government continues to bail out these companies on Wall Street (at least some of my money is being used to save some people's jobs and livelihoods though), because the government has moved into uncharted waters in terms of involvement on Wall Street. I am not a fan of "big" government, but in this era of socialist democracy, I guess there is not a way to avoid it. But when I hear stories of how two government workers had to be hired in order to do another government worker's job because she was such a mess and yet was never fired - it brings a sick feeling to my stomach (and that is a true story).
And while people continue to buy IPods, Blackberries, and Rock Band 2, you can't say that we have reached Great Depression levels - sure, we are in a recession, but while people continue to buy "stuff" that is, in the end, non-essential to their existence, there is still some faith to be had in our economy. And there doesn't seem to be a shortage of work (just go to Monster.com, or careerbuilder.com) just yet, so again, there are reasons to remain confident and not hide in the bunker yet - or stuff all your cash under your mattress.
I wish I knew - but the problem of a free market economy and capitalism is that these downward spirals happen and sometimes take a while to get out of. This is not the Great Depression - we don't have breadlines for the majority of the nation yet.
This article is one of the best that I have read while trying to sift through the various news media outlets to find out the truth about what is going on. It details why we are in the mess that we are in, and why this is not going to be over anytime soon unfortunately. And also why no politician is going to be able to fix this problem, despite their promises of "regulation" (because Sarbanes-Oxley works soooo well...riiightt). No, unfortunately, the way that this problem is going to be fixed is banks need to start giving out loans again (but only to those who are fiscally responsible - ie, buy and pay what they truly can afford!), commodity prices and inflation need to go down, the dollar needs to strengthen, and the drop in pricing for houses needs to bottom out.
And while we are blaming the housing industry/market, let's also throw some of that blame onto Alan Greenspan during his reign at the Fed that allowed these interest rates to increase inflation above the average American's wage, and make borrowing money (ie, "credit") easier than it should have been for that American. So those people buying the McMansions (that are now foreclosing in droves), 4 luxury cars, and sending their kids to private school were overextending themselves after all, and now can't pay their bills and thus are sending Wall Street into turmoil, because they can't pay back the amount of debt they owe and have to foreclose and the banks have to write down that debt. Coupled with the fact that someone decided it would be great to make some money off of the amount of debt that someone else owes, we find ourselves in a "credit crisis". Yeah, that was a brilliant idea - make money off of negative money - that'll work! Because eventually that money will be paid off right, and since it is accumulating interest, that lump sum will be worth even more? Turns out nope - they actually couldn't pay back the loan, because they never had the money in the first place - and YET someone approved them for a loan. And then it gets all technical with the types of loans given out - adjustable interest percentage rates mortgages or interest only loans, where none of the principal was being paid down, and the loan money kept going up and up - and Wall Street placed bets on that, never foreseeing that the assets that people were banking on (their homes) were NEVER WORTH THAT MUCH!
Now that the housing bubble has burst and continues to plunge, and continues to be exasperated by Wall Street's lack of foresight, we the consumer will continue to suffer, because the commodities that we need to go down (energy, inflation, agriculture) continue to the do the opposite - they go up, weakening our dollar and deflate the purchasing power of the average American because companies have to raise their prices in order to account for the cost of commodities going up.
It is making me nervous that the government continues to bail out these companies on Wall Street (at least some of my money is being used to save some people's jobs and livelihoods though), because the government has moved into uncharted waters in terms of involvement on Wall Street. I am not a fan of "big" government, but in this era of socialist democracy, I guess there is not a way to avoid it. But when I hear stories of how two government workers had to be hired in order to do another government worker's job because she was such a mess and yet was never fired - it brings a sick feeling to my stomach (and that is a true story).
And while people continue to buy IPods, Blackberries, and Rock Band 2, you can't say that we have reached Great Depression levels - sure, we are in a recession, but while people continue to buy "stuff" that is, in the end, non-essential to their existence, there is still some faith to be had in our economy. And there doesn't seem to be a shortage of work (just go to Monster.com, or careerbuilder.com) just yet, so again, there are reasons to remain confident and not hide in the bunker yet - or stuff all your cash under your mattress.
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