On Transparency

Transparency is one of the new watch words we are hearing lately. We are saying our financial institutions need to be transparent or said another way have their actions and business practices visible to everyone, especially investors.

You know like divulge all the money held in offshore accounts, or the assets that you have artificially inflated with idiotic accounting. You know like be honest about the money you have been entrusted with. You know like a consumer with a credit score that tells all about them. Shouldn't banking institutions have the same thing? Shouldn't consumers be able to know everything about a financial institution before they invest?

We need to cut the fancy financial crap and go back to assets and liabilities. If it is harder than that then we fail. If Joe bag of donuts walks into the bank and says I need a loan but I got some stuff over here you can't see what do you think the loan officer will say. That door has to swing both ways or banking will never recover.

Retention Bonuses

The big CEO's of the financial industry just were before Congress indicating there would be no big bonuses or wasting of taxpayer money. The were correct, there won't be as many bonuses, but in their place will be retention awards to retain the talent they want to. A wise woman once told me if it walks like a duck, and it swims like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, IT'S A DUCK!! The financial terrorists have no moral compass and yet they are being treated as they do. Or is it just a dog an pony show for Congress to look good and powerful, when they are neither.

This is a sad chapter in the culture of greed that pervades our country. It will be our eventual undoing if not stopped. Only the people of this country can save it as the leadership void in Congress is critical. Know who you are voting for and use the power of the ballot. We have new leadership at the top and he deserves a better support group than what he has in the two houses. Don't think party think brains. Give him the team he needs to be successful. Not people who don't know fossil fuels from their shadow.

What is the End Game with all this Stimulus Stuff?

I think the stimulus packages, this one and the last one, is a load of baloney (insert your own expletive if you like). Albeit a big load but baloney none the less. What these packages are trying to do is restore the excesses of the past where consumers buy more than they should, whether it be houses, cars, credit card balances or whatever. Does anyone do a reasonableness test anymore? Are we trying to go back to living beyond our means? Are we saying we need to return to the past excesses? This all seems like a vicious cycle to me. How does this practice ever end?

As a nation and a world we need to relearn to live within our means. We need to know there is predatory lending when the rewards for making loans is so great the lenders will do anything to make loans. Remember what Michael Douglas said in Wall Street "Greed is good." Is that what we are trying to get back to? Are those really the new good old days? I think they are the days of the financial terrorists and hope they are gone forever.

I think it would do America good to step back and realize that perhaps that $2,000 plasma HD TV isn't really necessary. Perhaps a Chevy will do instead of a BMW. Perhaps a starter home would be good instead of a $350,000 four thousand square foot castle with a 100% mortgage that takes all of one income just to pay the mortgage, taxes and insurance, utilities, furniture and so on.

We need real leadership here just like when you looked your child in the eye when they were little and said you can't have that. Sorry, but we can't afford that right now. We need to save that money for your college fund. Let's start looking past tomorrow and think about the big picture. Ask yourself, do I really need all this, or is it just baloney.