Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Bailout

I have been quiet for the last few months. Writing here has become more of a chore than a joy and that is pretty much why this blog is dead. I'm ok with that. No one read it anyway.

But I worked for a credit union in the mortgage department and get asked every hour on the hour what do I think about all of this. I not going to get into derivatives, credit default swaps, or mortgage backed securities.

1) Remember when you had one of those tests back in school where the teacher told you, "There are no wrong answers." Well, this is exactly the opposite. No matter what we do big, small, or stay the course, it will be the WRONG answer. Bottom line: There is no rose pedal path back to prosperity. Sorry, $700 billion won't do it. Letting banks fail all around us won't do it either.

2) I'm not a doom and gloomer. I don't think this is the end of the world. But I do feel strongly that we as a country are going to stagnate over the next decade. We saw it with the Japanese with their "lost decade" that came from a housing bubble. I doubt that it will look the same but it will be similar in effectiveness.

3) What happened to moral hazard?

4) Funny thought about this government, we are PROACTIVELY trying to spread DEMOCRACY through war and sanctions but we are REACTIVELY becoming SOCIALISTS through our own stupidity. The Chinese,Russians and Hugo Chavez must be having a nice laugh about right now.

5) And I will leave you with one final thought. WARNING: THIS IS POLITICAL. Remember when Bush wanted to privatize social security? Can you imagine that right now? Look at how people freak out about their 401K...can you imagine if the other part of their retirement "nest egg" had been in this mess? Want to know which candidate for president supported that measure? I will give you a hint, he cheated on his wife to marry a beer heiress. He has seven houses, thirteen cars, thinks anyone making less than $5 million a year is middle class, said ten days ago that the economy was "fundamentally strong", one of his chief economic advisers called us a "nation of whiners", and suspended his campaign stating that he was going to work until this bailout was done and not debate if it did not get worked out, acted like a bull in a China shop, left the whole thing worse off than when it started, declared the mission was accomplished, debated when a deal wasn't done, has a creepy smile, calls people "my friends", and has a swollen gland on the side of his face that I can't help but stare at.

6) I bet you'll never guess who I am voting for.