Financial Firms & Banks & the Economy

REPORT CARD GRADE: F - ! ! !

What is bigger than the fall of Enron?

How about, our economy. Bank failures, big investment houses such as Lehman, AIG, Bear-Stearns, WaMu...the list goes on but it's very depressing to write. Retail giants. Auto makers. California. (yes, how could we have 2 consecutive $15 Billion budget deficits in a row, and currently not have an approved budget for a fiscal year that already started? Um, HELLO!!!!

Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. Indy-Mac....don't name your kids any of these unless you want them to be teased till kingdom come.

So many things have happened to our financial markets over the past year, let alone the last 3 weeks, that I can't help but wonder what justifies selecting & paying executives of those companies, the millions and millions of dollars they receive, only to watch our economic foundations get brittle like termite-invested planks. Even skin deeper, now I question the quality of those fine ivy-league colleges with the big-name graduate business schools and professors. I know these schools have their merit, but right now I move them to my short list. At this point it just feels like some aspects of our higher education system are shallow.

As citizens we push and make education priority; but teachers lose their jobs, and those that do well get paid little & feel less empowered to thrive, and many actually quit.

We push for better healthcare, but many families and individuals can't afford it because the health care providers are too busy figuring out how to give the CEO(s) almost a billion dollars in options & other compensation. Was the priority even straight to begin with?

Our infrastructures across the land are weakening...where is all the money REALLY going toward, hmm?

We asked for higher accountability in our marketplace, but where is the oversight?

It really feels like we are creating a "candy wrapper, without the candy inside" type of society (I heard a pastor use that analogy about a person's integrity and character; in my opinion, I think this notion is useful here). Where is the substance of those values we keep talking about? Where is the substance and integrity of the leadership we count on? After so many books on it, we still can't get it right?

$10 says there will be an FBI report or publication entitled "We saw this coming...5 years ago."

If there are folks that smart that they can investigate and write hind-sight reports like these, why aren't they being responsible enough to say something? And our 'Fundamentals' are still strong? What are 'fundamentals'? They are not fun, and right now, they are completely making me mental!! I think the politicians who keep using it in the press need to define it for the public and the lay-person, because there are still quite a few people that don't know the financial market lingo.

I read/watch CNN, CNBC, listen to AM news radio stations, read different newspapers, Yahoo (yes, YAHOO), the list goes on. All the personalities that write/report our daily news and events get paid big bucks. Sometimes I think "for what?". All you have to do is get out, drive a few miles, talk to your own friends, and you will know more deeply what is truly going on in our economy. And by most measures, that information is free.

So what will it take to get out of this hole? A DEFINITE change in our attitudes. It will take common sense, firm communication and creating a REAL sense of understanding to anyone who has a job, needs a job, or even is retired. I think it will take challenging some or all of the logic that we understand to be the "law of economics" because that logic is leaving A LOT of people behind. Think outside the box? I don't think there was a 'box' to begin with! Duped again!!

I am frustrated with being frustrated!!!!

And what about the poor and the marginalized? They seem to get ignored when the economy is doing well; and they still seem like they are being ignored when the economy, such as now, is bordering on broken. Celebrities are foreclosing on their multi-million dollar real estate?...GIVE ME A BREAK!!! I dare that celebrity to say that to the face of the homeless man or poor family that think about provision for their next meal, and on a daily basis. The reality is that they won't; the sad thing is that it's true.

One of the lessons I learned when my parents passed away, 18 years ago this year, is that there is great value in loss. I think sometimes it will take a tragic event for one to realize the value of what is lost. We grieve, we mourn, and hopefully we rebuild and with renewed understanding. I think in a real sense, that is what probably needed to happen with our economy for many of us to simply understand. Of course I don't like it, nobody does! A change in attitude and perspective are partners in recovery. I seriously hope we become 'students' of our own economy, because right now it is failing on the whole.

Just think for a moment, how it would feel to have an "A grade" economy. I know it's hard to see now; then again, was it ever that high? What if we were empowered by the right kind of political leaders, the right kind of business men and women, the right kind of teachers? Even with those people, there will still be some cyclical action in the transition, but falling and getting a scrape is a far cry different from falling and breaking your bones.

I love my bones.