So with 24 hours in Philadelphia thanks to US Airways and the weather I have a little time on my hands to do more than just read the news. I had a few minutes to think about it . . .
Here were the headlines I read today in the Wall Street Journal . . .
Struggling French Banks Fought to Avoid Oversight . . .
Germany, France Delay Euro Rescue Plan . . .
Greece Approves Cuts Amid Violent Protests . . .
For Bank in Spain, Links Aren't Plain . . .
Retailers Brace for 'Flash Robs' This Shoplifting Season . . .
and from the New York Times on-line . . .
Volcker Rule Grows From Simple to Complex . . .
In a nutshell . . . you can't trust the banks because they're in it to make money and they're BIG. So big that when they do something, it means BIG money and BIG bonuses and payoff for the bank executives. They'll do anything to avoid regulation and oversight. They have a nasty habit of lying to their own investors and regulators.
The media reports the disagreement between France and Germany like they are bickering kids. I think there should be arguments. There are fundamental differences of opinion in how the world financial crisis should be handled. This isn't the time to rush into a bad solution just for the sake of doing something. The something, if the wrong thing, could cause the economies of the world irreparable damage. I say, keep arguing and come to a well thought out solution. Don't rush . . . get it right.
While the French and Germans are arguing, the US Congress continues to allow itself to be wagged by just about anyone. The banking/investment lobbies had bargained for looser regulations and look where that got us. Now it's time to reign them back in and Congress doesn't have the guts to do it, allowing it's own legislation to be corrupted by lobbyists once again, swelling a four page ideal to swell to a 300 page regulation so complicated that no one likes it and it is unlikely to go anywhere. Listening to the radio last week, various interviews with Ohio politicians revealed that their biggest disappointment with public service is the fact that every day they have to spend appreciable time raising money from the minute they get into office, not necessarily for themselves, but for the RNC or DNC.
Meanwhile, prosecution of bank and financial institution executives seems like it will never happen. They manage to skirt responsibility for the actions of their organizations. The only people going to jail are the obvious ponzie schemers like Madoff and people who defraud the banks like Kweku Adoboli . . . he was the guy who got arrested in London for blowing $2 Billion of UBS's money in bad unauthorized trades.
Meanwhile, as the Greek debt crisis continues, the Greek Government is taking a lot of heat and their is violence in the streets because they are doing what has to be done. At a time when the economy has failed, the Greek Government can't possibly support the social welfare state it created and austerity measures are critical to contain the crisis. How can the rest of Europe be expected to bail them out if they don't tighten their belts? Yet the youth in Greece don't quite see it that way. They are throwing rocks and rioting in the streets protesting the measures. Why is it so difficult to realize that when there is no money, you actually have to consume less and work more? By the way, who is behind the youth? Oh surprise, surprise . . . the communist political organizations.
The same attitude displayed in the US where the phenomena of 'Flash Robs' is on the increase. In case you missed it, this is where youth communicate via twitter or facebook or some other medium and organize a mass shoplifting. The shear volume of the people involved at one store just taking what they want with no warning makes in almost impossible to stop or catch them. They happen lightning fast and very few of the perpetrators are prosecuted.
And while Ben Bernanke searches for a solution to our financial crisis, he notes what is missing from our economic picture in this recovery struggle . . . a healthy housing market. So what is the Fed poised to possibly do . . . pump more money into mortgage backed securities. So let me get this straight . . . propping up an industry to unsustainable levels and encouraging unsustainable borrowing helped cause, if not fully cause, our financial crisis . . . so let's go down that path again. By the way, I've read some of Bernanke's academic work on the causes of the Great Depression. It's very intelligent and well reasoned. I have a lot of trouble believing he doesn't have some good ideas how to get us out of this mess. Who is chirping in his ear and influencing him?
I can't wait to get back to Ulpan . . . I'd rather be obliviously focusing on verb tenses, vocabulary, and idioms I don't know when I read the news in Hebrew than loose total confidence in where this world is headed reading it in English.
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