Thursday, January 27, 2011

Financial Crisis Avoidable

The verdict is in. The Financial Crisis Commission Panel has reported. The findings are not a surprise. "The captains of finance and the public stewards of our financial system ignored warnings and failed to question, understand, and manage evolving risks within a system essential to the well-being of the American public. Theirs was a big miss, not a stumble." Consumers took on far too much debt. Bankers took on far too much risk. Regulators did not regulate. The Federal Reserve failed to stem the flow of toxic mortgages, which it could have done. It was the free market gone awry. Greed prevailed. There was "a breakdown of accountability and ethics". We are currently in a nationwide debate about the role of government. We have just seen an example of 'smaller government'. Sometimes we need government to protect us from ourselves. The Democrats on the panel concurred with the findings. The Republicans did not. Business as usual. One phrase really stood out in this report - "failed to question". Enough said.

10 comments:

  1. Maybe they questioned but failed to listen to the answers.

    In my own circumstances, I told our financial advisor we'd like to invest in green, socially responsible stocks. She said, "That won't cut it as an investment in your retirement; it won't give you the return you want."
    So we kept the stocks we have.

    I feel embarrassed about that. But there you are.

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  2. And in return, it's probably a good thing that we have a 2 party system and the Republicans are questioning what the Democrats have done these past 2 years. How on earth are we going to balance the budget and still keep spending like we have done?

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  3. We went through quite a down turn--just when I thought we were set for a comfortable retirement. Lucky for us we had a plan B, but I really worry about our kids and how they might ever be ready for a retirement life.
    The word "greed" seems to come up a lot in discussions about the economy. Nothing new there either I guess.

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  4. I love how you were able to state the whole sorry condition so succinctly. Excellent! So... now then... where to go from here.

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  5. It's not money that is the root of all evil, but the LOVE of money. And that's the problem: give those guys money and they forget that they are just like us. I foten wonder if it happens to anybody who gets too much money...

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  6. A you say Linda, enough said. Let's hope this has been a wake-up call.

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  7. Here in New Zealand as the economy slowly begins to lift so is the greed of those who can get away with it, such as oil company's, our own largest Dairy group who control the cost of dairy products here as well as export prices, and now electricity companies. Prices here are again beginning to soar uncontrolled as they did before the recent recession. I am convinced that another more serious recession is going to happen again soon because of this greed. - Dave

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