Financial Fiasco

I would like to preface this entry with a few points:

# 1) I had a feeling this day would come even though I’ve been trying to avoid it like the plague. What is this you might ask yourself? Well, it’s an all-out rant on my blog about the current fiasco transpiring in our financial markets and how “we” managed to get ourselves into this situation. I am sorry to say, or maybe not sorry to say, this will not be that all-out rant. Just sort of a rant. :-)

# 2) It’s not that I’m afraid to address the issues revolving around our financial markets; in fact just this opposite. However, circumstances dictate that I can no longer bite my tongue. I had hoped to develop a well thought-out, professionally constructed blog post to address this topic. Now I feel that I must at least establish the foundation for future possible posts, as I do find it extremely relevant to all of our daily lives whether we believe it or not.

# 3) Again, I don’t want this to be a rant on how I genuinely detest those few individuals who have perpetuated this historic financial catastrophe. I’m sure there will be plenty of ranting in forthcoming posts on this topic. I’ll defer to future posts to elaborate on how I feel about the “who”, “how”, “when” and “why” regarding government bailouts, historically low interest rates, astronomically high foreclosure rates, 401k’s wiped out and pending inflation.

Referencing Paragraph #1: I used the term “we” in the first paragraph of this post to indicate something important especially, right now, on February 25, 2009 as I write this blog post. For others reading this sometime in the future it may be very different but I can assure you that, on this day, the Consumer Confidence Index is extremely low. The general uncertainty of the future is prevalent amongst most citizens in the United States, and likely around the world. I can’t imagine that there is one person that this economic downturn has not adversely affected within the past year or so, or might affect sometime in the near future. Regardless of your particular opinion of how we got here, “we” are in this together to work through the tough times. This is the “we” to which I refer. While I realize that we must be realistic concerning the possibilities and be honest about the future, we must also see the preverbal “light at the end of the tunnel”. In other words, times are tough and the short-term outlook for a quick economic turnaround is dismal in spite of the government pumping billions of dollars into the system. However, we must realize that like most things, this typically is part of a long-term economic up and down cycle and while many of us enjoyed the good times not so long ago, we must also endure the difficult times.

Reference Paragraph #2: In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am by no means an expert on this topic (like that wasn’t already evident). I will, however, claim lots of miscellaneous and/or useless knowledge of the various factors that have contributed to the burst of this economic bubble. I also must admit that this knowledge came to me as a few, fortunate coincidences. First, my wife used to work for a brokerage firm where we established our first stock trading account. Although we had minimal funds to invest, it did peak my interest in business. I enjoyed losing my money slowly in the crooked, er… ummm, I mean highly-orchestrated Wall Street schemes. I absolutely feel that not everyone on Wall Street is a crook and I’m sure there are many honest people at work there but, the few bad apples have ruined this barrel, at least in the short-term. Crooks at Enron, MCI, Beazer Homes, Countrywide Funding, etc., have made a mockery of our law enforcement agencies; exploited loopholes in our legal system by using them to their advantage and generally disgraced our Nation with their selfish behavior.

Secondly, it just so happens that a project I was doing at work roughly a year ago, involved research of current events affecting the “Lending” vertical market for my company’s particular technology. While this was sobering information to learn and digest, I did identify at few major factors that might help drive adoption of our technology so I paid close attention to developments in these areas:

1) Subprime Lending
2) Proposed “Photo Identification Security Act”
3) Patriot Act
4) Sarbanes-Oxley

As you can see from the list above, Subprime Lending was top of mind for me at the time. I was paying close attention to the mortgage market like I never imagined that I would before. Long story short, these were two significant events, which lit the fire of emotion in me to speak out on this topic, and why I wish to be outspoken and discuss it with others.

Reference Paragraph #3: Ok, hopefully in Paragraph #1 I’ve established that “we” are in this regardless of political affiliation or other differences. We can do a lot to help ourselves and if everyone makes that extra effort to contribute then hopefully it’s less painful for our friends, neighbors and family. It won’t be easy but we must try. In Paragraph #2 I hoped I articulated why I am personally passionate about this topic and the reasons behind it. Now I would like give my humble opinion of what should happen to those who are found guilty of causing this misery to us: Fry ‘em!

Can I be anymore clear? I am absolutely disgusted, pissed off, mad, angry and a zillion other adjectives to describe “how to feel about rich jerk-offs getting richer at the expense and the misery of others”. I want to see them prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law – and then some! Martha Stewart got six months? These guys ought to be put away forever! Bernie Madoff and his crew need to be making highway street signs for eternity! I feel so awful for those who suffer because of these self-centered SOB’s.

Sorry, I’m done. What caused this temporary rant? Do you care? Am I wrong? Do you agree? Please drop me a quick note on my blog and let me know how you feel.

By-The-Way. What do you think prompted me to lift my self-imposed moratorium on not posting on the financial crisis topic? This post: (and it seems like daily news anymore)

Money managers accused of $550 million fraud

As a side note: I was looking for a royalty-free image of domino’s falling to depict my point visually I came across a blog which includes financial and historical information. This blog elaborates on how the housing industry may be responsible for America’s financial distress. “Where There Is Ruin III: Housing Dominoes Fall

Thanks again for your attention,

Kevin

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