Bubba2

While Financials Drag Markets Down, Five Ways to Stay in Play

I am a banker. Apparently, one of the good ones who work for the thousands of community banks in this country. We are very sick of paying the bill for our Wall Street counterparts who abused the system and wasted their capital on self-serving "investments." The FDIC is charging all banks a "special assessment" to cover the losses they expect in the near future. The amount of the assessment will exceed 20% of our after tax income. Does this sound like an incentive to make more loans? The government continues to talk in one direction but drive in another. Is there any reason for people be responsible for their own actions? How about a reward for doing well? (Before the govenment takes it all.)

Cramer's Stop Trading! It's the Principle of the Thing (1/8/09)

When do people take responsibility for their own actions? This mess has been caused by greed on the part of consumers who felt they "deserved" to own expensive toys, take expensive vacations and generally live beyond their budgets. It was supported by the greed of some lending institutions who saw an opportunity to "serve the public" and supplied the money. The government policies encouraged these excesses as a way to fuel economic growth and help politicians keep their jobs. In general, the economy was living beyond it's means and now we have to pay the bill.

Now, politicians are choosing to bail out large companies such as Citibank, General Motors and Wall Street brokers because it hopefully saves jobs and looks good in the headlines. They also salvage the Investors who own these large companies. These are the same investors who allowed their company to make risky investments. What ever happened to fiscal responsibility on the part of the Board of Directors?

This pattern of excessive spending, growth and decline will continue to repeat itself until our country learns to be more self-sufficient. How many times can the American taxpayer bail out those who choose to make irresponsible decisions? We continue to allow consumers and companies to take excessive risks without experiencing the potential of loss, especially for large corporations. Maybe they should be allowed to fail in order to clean out over production and let the best companies survive. (I believe its called a capitalism) Maybe banks should be required to make sure a borrower can repay the loans the receive. Maybe we should all learn to live within a budget (including the govenment).