Posted by
Old Retired Fart on Monday, September 29, 2008 5:56:48 PM
There have been a series of events in the ORF household lately that have led me to doing some serious thinking on the current financial crisis. I am a huge advocate of personal responsibility. I believe that you should reap the consequences of your actions in most cases.
The whole financial crisis struck me as different initially...what would all those poor, innocent people do. And then I started to ask...which poor innocent people. As far as I can tell, not a single depositor has lost a dime at any failed institution. So those can't be the poor innocents who are going to be hurt. Then I thought of the folks who invested their hard-earned savings into these institutions. Well...then I remembered something called diversity, (as it applies to investing). Folks who have money working in a variety of mutual and bond funds should actually be doing ok (up 17% for the month myself...but that is just luck). Not to mention the fact that the market as a whole is down less than 10% after the "worst drop in history".
Then I heard...it is about the credit market...people won't be able to borrow money, no houses, no cars, no jobs. Until I heard that a bond offering or two this past week in the billions of dollars was oversubscribed. Sounds like folks want to lend money...as long as it is to a credit worth source.
So...after a few days of hemming and hawing I've come to the conclusion that it is time for everyone responsible for the financial mess to take responsibility for their actions. The companies have to take responsibility for making stupid investments, the stockholders have to take responsibility for not demanding higher standards from the company, and the liberals who set this mess up (next blog, I promise) need to stand up and take responsibility for creating this mess.
As usual...just my .02 worth. Charlie Mike