Greed has gotten us here in the state of our financial crisis. The House is now preparing the pass the 700 billion bail out of the wealthy greedy bastards on wall street. But where is the accountability and responsibility? Also, as always, Congress added pork to a bill that is going to cost all of us a lot of money in order for a very few to have gold covered toilets and Bentleys in their drive ways from one of 9 houses (I am not referring to John McCain and his wealthy wife?).
This weekend I was in Ireland teaching my leadership course as part of the British Council’s Trans Atlantic Network 20-20. In one of the sessions where the entire group got together for a BBC radio show, they were asked who is responsible for the current financial crisis (Europe is being hit hard as well). Countless, very smart and potential leaders from around the globe gave their numerous answers, but I kept saying to myself, “Well, lets tell the truth, we just have to look in the mirror.” We, the public, keep putting the same politicians in office, we keep allowing them to “strip mine” our nation in order to get grossly wealthy on the promise that this would “trickle down” to us.
Boys (and girls) were we fooled. I am not innocent either. When my father passed away, he left me a house that was paid off. I took out a line of credit on that house in order to upgrade my house in Virginia. I did this because my father and others had all said that the house would go commercial one day for a lot more money. Of course this has not happened especially now, nor do I predict will it happen soon.
Anyway, I encourage people to get involved, and think through who you are going to vote for beyond the one party with two different names. It means a lot more to our country right now than in any time in our history. Short of voting, simply do your homework, and call your representative, put pressure on them to do what is right.
The next short essay is for your learning pleasure.
US ‘will lose financial superpower status’
By Bertrand Benoit in Berlin
Published: September 25 2008 11:55 | Last updated: September 25 2008 20:28
The US will lose its role as a global financial “superpower” in the wake of the financial crisis, Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said on Thursday, blaming Washington for failing to take the regulatory steps that might have averted the crisis.
“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multi polar” with the emergence of stronger, better capitalised centres in Asia and Europe, Mr Steinbrück told the German parliament. “The world will never be the same again.”
His were the most out spoken comments by a senior European government figure since Wall Street fell into chaos two weeks ago.
He later told journalists: “When we look back 10 years from now, we will see 2008 as a fundamental rupture. I am not saying the dollar will lose its reserve currency status, but it will become relative.”
The minister, who has spearheaded German efforts to rein in financial markets in the past two years, attacked the US government for opposing stricter regulations even after the subprime crisis had broken out last summer.
The US notion that markets should remain as free as possible from regulatory shackles “was as simplistic as it was dangerous”, he said.
But Mr Steinbrück had warm words for the US’s crisis management in the past fortnight, including the government’s planned $700bn rescue package for the financial sector. Washington, he said, had earned credit for acting not just in the US interest but also in the interest of other nations.
Yet he repeated Germany’s refusal to mount a similar rescue operation using taxpayers’ money to acquire toxic assets. “This crisis originated in the US and is mainly hitting the US,” he said. In Europe and Germany, such a package would be “neither sensible nor necessary”.
The US, Mr Steinbrück said, had failed in its oversight of investment banks, adding that the crisis was an indictment of the US two-tier banking system and its “weak, divided financial oversight”.
He blamed Washington for refusing to consider proposals Berlin had made as it chaired the Group of Eight industrial nations last year. These proposals, he said, “elicited mockery at best or were seen as a typical example of Germans’ penchant for over-regulation”.
His comments followed calls this week by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president and current holder of the European Union presidency, for an emergency G8 meeting on the crisis.
Mr Steinbrück’s proposals include a ban on “purely speculative short selling”; a crackdown on variable pay for bank managers, which had encouraged reckless risk-taking; a ban on banks securitising more than 80 per cent of the debt they hold; international standards making bank managers personally responsible for the consequences of their trades; and increased co-operation between European super visors.
Following a meeting with Christine Lagarde, his French counterpart, in Berlin, he said France and Germany would set up a working group of treasury, central bank and supervisory authority officials that would consider tougher regulation of short selling.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
“The more you read and observe this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that’s out always look best.” : Will Rogers, 1924
That is a great quote, thanks for adding. As I keep saying “where have all the leaders gone?” But, if you read Andy Bacevich’s latest book Limits of Power, at least in the Beltway, they are all replaced with “lap dogs.”
Don
“Lap dogs” with lap tops, I presume. Faulty OODA loops. The wonders of “Network – Centric Warfare”. No insult meant to the gentleman who came up with the concept.
As Boyd said, “no system can survive within itself” these self centered, oneway so called leaders have been looking us in the eyes and telling us all what we want to hear for years and years while padding their pockets. And they are doing this in the establishment that was set up and designed for the people of this nation. It seems they have only a concern for those in or connected to the Beltway, an eternal system influenced by itself. Therefore doomed for failure… I never thought i would find myself uttering these words… The will of the people I will always believe in. But these politicians should be ashamed. They have lost my respect.
Fred,
Unfortunately, you are exactly right. Our nation is in a demise, one that it cannot come to grips with due to exceptionalism. Sadly, we can fix our problems right now with some pain, or wait a few years and require major surgery. The people can turn it around if they would just take the time to vote in true leaders instead of cheerleaders.
Don