Posted by
King David Caul on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 1:46:12 PM
Wall Street will go down; bailout or no -- fast or slow. It is an inevitable correction that will happen (unless we artificially inflate the currency and the markets with manufactured wealth or the taxed savings of the nation's citizens). But Wall Street will also correct itself upwardly when financial practices are sound, and industry is well-run and future oriented.
This notion being inferred ubiquitously -- that Wall Street should only go up -- is as erroneous, and as impossible as the poisonous adage sold to us over the last decade, that "real estate can only go up". It is a dream, a lie, or a delusion at best.
So Wall Street isn't soaring right now to say the least, and that's an indicator that the bailout should have happened? Or, is it an indicator of what corrections inevitably must do to a Wall Street not artificially buoyant, but instead correlating to the national condition. And the national condition is an economy overly dependent on foreign energy and foreign money, widely resented for that which we do and that which we do not do, oriented toward casualness regarding saving, and perpetually taking ever creeping steps farther toward entitlement mentalities as a "career". Wall street might also be correcting to reflect heavy burdens of Illegal immigration, of governmental recklessness, of banks and mortgage companies that are functioning like business imbeciles, or to the elevation of the CEO to some kind of holy man status (to whom astronomic and adoring paychecks must pay homage).
So Wall Street needs aid? Perhaps there are sensible, less controversial steps, with greater guarantee/likelihood of success. Perhaps there are temporary measures which can help alleviate dramatic correction. But any measure which negates properly correlating correction, is not helping anything; it is merely disguising inevitable reality with complex delusion. Any fix of this sort has incredible potential to cause even greater harm. Isn't that a real risk? Aren't we trying to minimize risk at this moment?
This nation does NOT need this 700 BILLION dollar BAILOUT!!! Perhaps foreign markets do - but can we actually try to manipulate ALL the worlds markets simultaneously?
The Nation DOES need wisdom, care, insight, and some package of measures which can delicately ride the balances of helping, versus making things worse.
So the point is what measures are SAFE; and have the potential to immediately effect key instruments of our economy such that a downward spiral is at least arrested, and hopefully reversed. I believe the key element of focus should indeed be "confidence". The $700 billion is an attempt to BUY confidence. But the system is still in trouble, and would continue to be prone to trouble. I propose a different, far less costly, and perhaps quite effective target for gains of "confidence".
My proposal:
1. Heads need to roll. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the stinking leadership of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae...etc.
2. Golden parachutes need to be turned into lead , one way or another. The people of the nation need this. This would do wonders for the economy and public morale. If the common good matters at all, then this is at the heart of what the people need to see. The captains need to go down with their ships, or the passengers will never trust ocean travel. It is an ancient moral code, well scripted into our genetic cultural make-up.
3. Passage of a LITE and careful bill, with some useful tweaking, which bails out no one to the tune of $0. Some incremental and respectfully cautionary measures can began unfolding, in DOSES.
Wall Street is all about confidence!? RIGHT? Let the people see responsibility and culpability, and then let the people see Wall Street and the lending industries sober up and fly straight. It would generate an astonishing leap in confidence for the population of the US. I don't think anyone could even predict how well the market might react to that.
The American Main Street doesn't need to see a $700 billion defibrillator apply shocks to a fat, ugly, out of shape, addicted cardiac arrest patient named Wall Street. The nation needs to see a frank and earnest accountability and assignation of responsibility. Perhaps Wall Street is tumbling because of the complete absence of anything coming close to this. Not only is the proper culpability not being levied against those responsible, but the villains are all but being targeted for the rewards, and some of those most responsible are being PRAISED for their wisdom and leadership (Barney Frank for example). And since they keep telling us "Wall Street IS Main Street", then you also must accept that Main Street IS Wall Street. And Main Street wants to see some heads roll, and some gluttons for cash go on a STRICT diet. And since we apparently need to be SO worried about Wall Street, then we should be likewise SO worried about Main Street, which means...SOME HEADS SHOULD ROLL!!
Wall Street isn't, wasn't, and never will be Main Street. Again, if Wall Street IS Main Street, then Main Street IS Wall Street. So they should respond to OUR desires in an equal measure as they do to Wall Street's caprices. They should look out for OUR interests as WE define them. But - No; it doesn't work like that. It is a one way relationship. And every time it is asserted that Wall Street IS main street (so we should bail them out) - its a lie. Wall street is the "heroin-addiction" of main street. It is the flashy soulless SIDE of main street. Main Street is affected by Wall Street in a dependency way. And it isn't always healthy, and we must have the courage to let wall street suffer, and must have the wisdom to keep great resources OUT OF THEIR HANDS. How many times have you heard wall streeters say "diversify" - but they mean diversify WITHIN wall street! DON'T DO IT. Put some of your wealth OUT OF THEIR REACH. Otherwise when they have their crisis, you must put up with this damned refrain, "Wall street IS main street"...It is the OFFICIAL most annoying phrase of 2008.
Lots of U.S. citizens understand the difficulty were in, we're just not willing to eat the bile, in order that the bile doesn't hit the fan. Give us a better, less repugnant solution. Nobody is anti-solution. There are numerous approaches that could be debated, but this tunnel-visioned rush to write the biggest check we've ever heard of is fundamentally unacceptable in almost every regard. And the citizens feel this way in an EXTREMELY rare UNIFIED way. Take heed Washington; we expect to be RESPECTED!!