Picture Notes

The Season that is…  Let the government bail out your company.

I found these at a cooking store, they are made from chocolate and it’s all I’m eating for Halloween while the US Government once again bails out the banking industry for their greed, or “drunkenness”.  I wonder how many times it will happen.  This looks like a major world-wide meltdown.  The 2nd Great Depression?  Only time will tell.  I wonder who would loose the most (which individuals) if these companies were allowed to finish their life cycle in the capitalist economy.  Instead we have socialism and we’re protecting people from some really bad investments, individuals who should have to pay the price for taking these kind of chances.

The government bail out made me think about Roosevelt and how he brought the US out of the great depression just a few years ago with legislation and regulation and most importantly, leadership.  Most of those regulations have been taken apart and there is no leadership in sight.   This depression will be how this administration will be remembered in the short term, in the long term we will only remember the leadership that comes along and puts the regulations back to the way they were in 1935.   Unfortunately, the guys “debating” last night, (it sounded more like a love fest with the phrase “my friend” being thrown out like they were at a country club) aren’t the ones that can do it, at least I have no confidence in either one.

There are well run, excellent companies who did not dip into the cookie jar of junk mortgages and even those good companies are being sold off right now.  I hope the people who created this “2nd great depression” are the ones who will pay the most but it looks like congress has already decided to protect them and make “The Average American” pay, so let’s just write a check and be done with it.  No, let’s pay with a credit card.   700 billion dollars divided by roughly 300 million people.   This was all predicted about 10 years ago.  The problem is that in our system credit creates wealth and when people start paying off their credit cards it creates real problems.

Wait wait, is that the Truth I hear?

“Wall Street got drunk.” What a funny way to put it. I wonder if the oil companies are drunk as well. All the noise about emerging markets putting upward pressure on oil prices is just a cover for greed. Let’s see what happens when Americans stop buying stuff made in China. I agree with my bank when it writes that oil prices are another bubble that will burst. I wonder if the housing market will be the trigger that brings it all down. It was good news to read that highway fatalities have gone down since gas prices went up. Everyone has to be safer when the big cars are off the road. What if we all drove motorcycles? At least we’d be safe from cars.

I’m still having trouble with the “wall street got drunk” statement.
After 8 years all of a sudden everyone has started telling the truth?

Wall Street got drunk
The economy is in trouble and going to get worse

I like it when they say “mistakes were made” or “we didn’t understand the depth of the problem” or “we didn’t think the Iraq people would react that way” or how about “we did our best, we just didn’t foresee this.” Can’t they hire someone who has a little prescience and listen to him or her? And then they stand up and say, “I take responsibility for this.” The statement doesn’t change anything, it’s not their kids being killed in the middle east. So what does this responsibility amount to? You tell me.