OT, the financial crisis

[curlyandshemp]

What is really puzzling is how this whole thing is sucking the TSX down with it. On Monday after the bailout vote was defeated, the TSX suffered its worse daily crash ever. Yesterday after the modified bailout was in theory approved, the TSX suffered its 2nd worse daily crash ever.

I am glad I do not plan to retire for another 10 or 15 years. By then all my RRSPs will have regained what they have lost in the last month of madness

 

[leitmotif]

So why do we never do these things to middle and upper management "you were in charge, you are supposed to be responsible YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE.

Dan Bentler

We experienced a fatality at out plant about a month ago. The equipment was in a short shutdown for emergency repairs. The plant manager was personally visiting the site of the repairs multiple times in the day preceeding the accident. He wasn't there to make sure the guys were following all the safety procedures. They took a shortcut and a 35 year old worker died. It will be interesting to see who takes the fall. I would bet my paycheck it won't be the plant manager.

Brian

No the manager was out there pestering the guys with HOW LONG and worried about the Production God. If he had stayed in his office where he belonged and left them alone the guy may be still alive. And you want to know the bad part - the company will probably get only a $1,000 fine.

Dan Bentler

 

[Lancie1]

But to me a large part of the blame has to be put on the board and the CEO. These guys should have known this was going to happen. They should be held accountable the same way we are when we make a bonehead mistake. We PAY for it.

Before everyone goes TOO far down the "blame the CEO's" road, let us take a look at BEFORE 2001:

Before 2001 in the US, you could not buy a house without a large cash down payment. If your credit history was bad, you could not buy one. If you did not have sufficient income, you could not buy one from a normal lender.

Before 2001, how many banks defaulted due to bad home loans?

After 2001, our good Congress voted to do away or relax all the above regulations. Banks and lending company directors were "encouraged" (ordered by the government) to loan money to people who previously would have been shown the door. Many banks got into the game to keep their earnings at least equal to the banks who were making money making risky loans.

It only took about 7 years for these bad regulations to knock out the system. Now we are in the process of adding more bad regulations to cover up previous bad Congressional decisions.

Whose fault is it really? I think the blame has to spread around between Congressional short-sightedness, bank directors, and greedy home buyers. Two out 3 of these groups learned a lesson. The 3rd group is doing the same old same-old.

 

[Gerry]

There is No Such Thing as a Free House

[font=Times New Roman, Times, serif]"Instead of looking to the mainstream for answers to this crisis, why not look to those who saw it coming?"
The Recession Reader

[/font]

The CEO of Washington Mutual is going to make millions for running the company for only a few weeks. I blame the board for hiring the robber.

There's more robbers in the 'hood