What strange logic, Espee.
They can't be successful businesses if they fail.
That's like the addicted junkie (the insolvent debtor) blaming their dope pusher (the bank) for witholding their "cocaine line" of credit.
Greg
That's a pretty bizarre point of view for a business owner.
Most businesses of any size or consequence have a line of credit. Think car dealerships, general contractors, home builders, and all kinds of producers of durable goods. Pull the line out from under them at the wrong time and you can create havoc, or in the worst case, kill the company. The businesses I'm referring to were smallish, 50-75 employees, profitable, with backlog, and executing it. All characterisitcs of a successful business wouldn't you say? So, I ask again, what did these guys do wrong?
There's nothing broken in the Capitalist system...
...the only thing that's broken are the people who aren't Capitalists.
The American Capitalist system is sound... but only for those who live by it's principles:
Decency
Responsibility
Productivity
Solvency
and Frugality
Everyone in America who lives by those principles will be as successful as their telents and abilities will make them...
...regardless of any economic or political cycle.
You're not going to tell us all to go shopping now are you?
Lots of feel good talk there but not much fact to back it up.
Seriously, leading economic inicators disagree with you. The NY times carried an article today that gave some interesting statistics. Growth down, employment outlook poor, durable goods output down, consumer spending weaker than expected, in general, recovery slowing. Doesn't sound stable to me.
The only real regulation that counts is self-regulation.
That would be true if everyone practiced it on both sides of the table. Unfortunately, if you look at the crash, you'll find that the greed and recklessness you blame the people for was also practiced by our corporations and financial institutions. As I mentioned previously in this thread, our corporate culture has done a fine job of demonstrating that they need some rules to live by, since they can't seem to police themselves.
Let's look at an example...Lots of folks bought more house than they could really afford, wound up with payments they couldn't make, or after the crash, a house worth a fraction of what they owed on it. Reckless? Yes. Poor decision? You bet.
Now, let's look at the folks on the other side of the table. What about the people who wrote these loans knowing that the borrower couldn't hack the payments? Or the way groups of these securities were bundled together, given a Triple A rating with a wink and a nod and sold as safe investments by other institutions playing fast & loose? Also reckless if not outright dishonest.
When I bought my first house I sat down with a banker who knew my history and was very interested in my ability to pay back the loan because his bank was going to hold the note. Most of the bad mortgages written were done by brokers who made a commission and sold the loan. They had no interest in the long term. They couldn't have cared less. Accountability had gone away. We need that accountability back big time.
It can only worry you to the extent that your own financial situation is out of balance, for that is what makes you subject to the ups and downs.
Think so? I can't agree here. Billions in net worth were lost from retirement savings due to the market crash. Like the ripples in a pond when a stone is tossed in radiate outward, wild ups & downs affect everyone to some degree, even if it's only less customers for you because people are not spending, or other lost business opportunities. Last year my company lost a lot of business because raw materials costs were insane. It was pretty much impossible to hedge material costs because of the roller coaster ride these costs were taking
What I'm actually saying is that I
work to
earn the
right to
own everything that I possess.
This is what it means to be an American Capitalist. I suggest to you that the damage of this reckoning is
not touching the Capitalists. It is
only wreaking havoc on the imprudently insolvent Creditists... just as they deserve.
I have absolutely
no control over how others choose to live. Everyone else is
exactly as personally responsible for the just and deserved consequences of their own choices as I am... because everyone is playing under
exactly the
same moral rules.
Greg
Well Greg, you can dress it up as pretty as you like, but it's the same message.
As for everyone playing by the same moral rules? Not really. I think the folks who bought those credit default swaps, or invested money with Bernie might disagree with you.
Recklessness, impatience and greed by consumers did play a big part in causing our current problems, but these were also enabled by reckless business practices, corporate greed, and too much deregulation.
You seem to want to let our corporations and Wall Street do whatever they want, make their own rules. Well, that really doesn't seem to have worked that well so far...it is a big part of what caused our present economic woes.
People need to tighten their belts, business needs to be accountable, and government needs to facilitate or regulate as needed.
You viewpoint seems very black & white. I wish it was that simple, but there is a lot of gray in the world.
can even find 12V microwaves..
