I typically blog about things I interact with on a daily business like software and web development. In fact, I have had a long standing rule with myself not to ever discuss my political opinions or perspectives in a public forum but given what’s been happening over the past week or so I am making an exception because I feel like venting some frustration…
A Few of Tonight’s Headlines
- U.S. Plans to Clean Up Finance System As Part of Widening Effort to Stem Crisis
- Wall Street Seeps Into Everyday Lives
- Household Net Worth are on Decline
The Stock Market
I woke up Monday morning and sat glued in front of the markets all day long in hopes of picking up some bargains on stocks that I can hold long term. For the first time in a long time I feel pretty comfortable with my portfolio’s long term forecast, however I wish I would have been better positioned to capitalize than I was, but that’s always the case. I have watched the markets decline all week long until they finally rallied today slightly.
Even with the slight rally and lower oil prices, no educated person is going to deny that the economy is in worse shape than it has been since the great depression. How did it get to this point? I have some ideas but honestly I don’t think that any of us know for sure. I think that it is likely not one particular company, person, or decision that we can blame, instead I think that there are some factors such as greed and bad decisions that have attributed over time to the point of where we are now.
Failing Financial Sector
I have watched these past few weeks as the Government has stepped in and propped up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and we all know what happened with Bear Stearns. This past week I watched powerhouses Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch just go away for all practical purposes. These were household names and have been around longer than the automobile! They are no more…
Government Buyout / Support
Tonight, this is what prompted me to post this off-topic post on my blog, I watched a news conference where Treasury Secretary Paulson announced alongside political leaders from both sides of the aisle that there is a serious problem and the Government is going to go into session and discuss what their involvement needs to be in order to stabilize the economy. It is rumored that there will be a huge influx of federal funding to some of these financial institutions in order to keep them above water. Realizing that this is my hard earned tax dollars that these people who don’t even know me are getting ready to reward these corporations with for their bad management and greed, it really frustrated me. I just don’t know if bailing these companies out is the right thing to do, I have heard arguments from both sides of the issue, it really kind of bothers me that irregardless I will have no say whatsoever we do or not! It’s frustrating to me.
With all of this being said, I want to state for the record that I am a Christian and do my best to honor my government leaders and the institution of government that we have in the United States, I wouldn’t want to live in any other country. With that being said, I would advise everyone reading this blog post to take a good look around, watch the news, read the newspapers and blogs, and absorb everything you possibly can about what’s going on these days. Because there is a good possibility that we may never see this country’s economy or outlook this screwed up ever again! No matter how hard we try!
Sorry if you have a difference of opinion or perspective of what’s going on, I honestly don’t care to debate opinions with anyone, I just wanted to voice my frustrations. My prayer tonight, and every night, is that we will have the right leaders guided by the spirit to rise up and take control of this situation as soon as possible and problems that got us to where we are now will become evident over time so that we can remedy them in the future before history repeats itself again.
Please Drop Your Questions or Comments