I apologize for two posts relating to recent actions by the Fed being too Onion-esque for this blog. The posts in question refer to 1. the Fed buying eTrade and 2. a poker group buying Bear Stearns.
Ultimately, the humor in these posts (or lack thereof) was inspired by frustration. We are witnessing painful failures of a financial system that is affecting millions of people worldwide. These failures were the result of short-sighted engineering to stave off collapse by previous people in power, effectively deferring the problem to the future.
The Fed is now pumping dollars into the system and pushing for more "oversight"of the banking industry, going so far as to mandate irrational banking deals. It does not take a world-renown economist to see the collapse of the dollar and end of the "free" market looming on the horizon. Again, a current generation is punting problems to the future.
The problems being punted by our own generation are far more serious than anything we have seen to date: financial collapse, global climate change, mass extinction, global disease… More needs to be done, and we are not powerless. Humor may help to take the edge off, but it is not the answer…
It is your blog, and we actually appreciate much of the humor here, but that just crossed a line during hard times (very hard times are yet to come, but let’s not complain until something truly bad happens, if it ever does).
However, the ‘Fed’ is rescuing not just the institutions, but those white collar criminals responsible for it, so EVERYONE (not just the villans) may rest easy for a short while.
Previous & current Republican terms of office & their appointed teams have pushed responsibility for MANY things into the future.
Unfortunately for the current generation, government oversight began failing with the Reagan years, and many of those problems have come back to haunt us now. In THIS ‘future’ generation.
Yes, the Democratic (OK, Clinton) regimes balanced the budget, and began making amends to the point of some government surpluses [remember those folks?], but the ‘DUBYA’ cadre took the teeth out of or just destroyed those financial resolutions even BEFORE 911.
Yes, Reaganomics DID bring independence to financial enterpreneurs & institutions[Whoopee!], but to what end?
I think we’re seeing that answer in “X-Weather” (don’t call it ‘Global Warming’, because in many cases it also means extreme cooling, and in all scenarios an eventual polution induced Ice Age), and some of the gross financial collapses happening now.
It is very ironic that Democratic governments have been labled ‘Tax & Spend’, when in fact only they have demanded fiscal responsibility & balanced budgets, both in government AND private-sector public financial institutions.
Oh, we saw a lesser version of exactly the same removal of government oversight leading to the financial collapse caused by Enron.
We, the People, noticed, but the ‘Fed’ chose to bury their heads into ‘a line drawn in the Sand’, with Enron & a few other egregious examples along the way.
So, now here we are looking for quick-fixes on an urban(City 2.0)or local, if not global level. Good luck with that, because we’ll need it.
I’m ready to try, both on a personal level, and in support of public insitutions with financial, ecological, and even global responsibility.
Someone has recently & very famously said “the working poor are bitter”
He got that wrong: WE ARE MAD AS HECK, AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE.
He also said we’re taking up guns & religion.
…Well, everyone gets ‘fox-hole’ religion under fire. In this case it’s a combination of fire in the streets; both crime in neighborhoods AND in boardrooms.
When it comes to criminals threatening us personally, or just mindless automatons threatening to take away our homes & other property.
For those among us with a positive outlook in life, take that as more of a survivalist mentality, with strong inclinations for self defense AND self-reliance.
…With just too little humour. That is a luxury for those who believe they’re secure.
No one in our current economy is truly safe, so there’s a lot we are all going to have to do to make our families safe, our finances safe, our homes safe, and everyone’s future safe.
As a VC you’ve got a slight advantage, but that may not last, so please begin to use that leverage to find a way to bootstrap your ideals & goals, and make a brighter future our common reality.
As you’ve recently come to realize, life can be much shorter than you thought just yesterday.