I think the senate is unclear on the concept of why the House bailout was rejected, at least by the House Republicans and the vast majority of the American people. It isn’t that we don’t want the problems fixed, it is that we don’t want to pay for the mistakes and greed of Congress coupled with Wall Street.
Make no mistake, we know who’s fault this is (well, at least some of us do). And the Senate version of the bailout does not address the problem, it confirms and extends it. The same essential bill is being offered, but with more pork. I am disappointed in John McCain for supporting this bill. It won’t help his election campaign, and it violates his stated principles about pork and waste.
Earmarks, pay for play, and lobbying got us into this mess, made it worse, and are not going to solve it for us.
Related Websites -
Obama - Show me the Money Every single day I have a friend, family member or co-worker talking to me about politics/economics. Â While, I don't see myself as above intelligent, I think am able to formulate and communicate an argument (maybe... -
Hard Truth Week in Review - Health Care Home Stretch Edition With the passage of the Baucus health care bill out of the Senate Finance Committee, we have entered the home stretch for health care reform legislation. I think the final bill will have a public... - Avoid Scams By Using Common Sense One blog I read regularly that many of you have probably heard of is Shoemoney. Last Sunday, he posted a letter from what he claimed (or was told) was a former Cash4Gold employee. You know:...
none
I’ve worked in operational environments over the years as a systems administrator. When I worked at IBM one of my responsibilities was ensuring uptime for the semiconductor design environment in Austin. One of the most valuable lessons I learned there was about panic.
Downtime in that environment could cost millions (the rough planning figure I used was in the vicinity of a quarter of a million dollars an hour in lost productivity with the first 15 minutes of the outage losing between 4-24 hours of work. Lots of money was on the line, and I had plenty of senior management at IBM regularly telling me how criticial it was. I even got a phone call once from the VP in charge of the Server group to let me know how critical uptime was for a particular chip build.
Needless to say, in that environment it would be easy to panic. Most times I didn’t because I had a strong team backing me. The few times I did panic were very instructive. Here are some of the lessons I learned:
- Panic will not make the solution better. It usually prevents the solution.
- Panic will not get anything done any sooner.
- Choices made while panicking will almost universally prove to be the wrong ones.
- Panic immobilizes.
- Panic equals FAIL.
Panic is what I see going on with the bailout. We don’t know what to do, so we gotta do *something*. And we do need to do something. But does it need to be so panic driven? What will change between today and tomorrow that will make such a huge difference?
Bold and decisive action does need to be taken, but it should also be deliberate action, not the panic driven need to do anything to show we are doing something.
Rudyard Kipling (under read in our politically correct society said this:
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; . . . If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same . . . yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.
We forget this to our peril.
Related Websites -
Lessons Learned from the Formerly Rich and Famous The media obsession with Michael Jackson continues unabated. I can't figure it out. The white-gloved weirdo could sing and dance, sure. But he was a general failure at life, including his financial life. Much of... -
4 Tips for Beginning Golfers If you’re just starting out in golf, or you have always wanted to know how to play, there are a few things that you will need to know before you get started. Golf is an... - The World's Most (Un)popular Economist "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they can imagine they can design." --F.A. Hayek Over the last few weeks, a little-known Austrian economist named...
one
Below is the text of an email I sent to my senators today.
Please vote against the bailout bill. I have already contacted my Representatives office (Mike Conaway) and thanked him for voting against it. I hope to be able to thank you as well on Wednesday.
The bailout has been necessitated by poor policy that was the enabled by the Community Reinvestment act and poor oversight by Congress. The activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the stewardship of Henry Paulson, John Snow, and their predecessors.
Related Websites none
I’ve decided it is time to re-engage with politics in my life. I do not like the way that things are going. I’ve always been center-right, but since Reagan I’ve pretty much voted and not much else. So what have I gotten for my inaction?
Eight years of Bill Clinton, almost 4 years of Al Gore (shudder), and 8 years of a weak George Bush. A congress lead by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, who do not seem to know how to lead, but only to blame.
Now, I’m not happy with my own party at all. But what alternative do I have? A party that would rather see a weakened America, with good paying jobs shipped overseas so as not to offend the radical environmentalist wing of their party? A media willing to lie to get their candidate elected? A nearly trillion dollar bailout because the Democrats created a system that required and encouraged and enabled banks to make bad loans to people who shouldn’t have gotten them?
I can’t continue being part of the problem, I’ve got to start being part of the solution, or at least to stop enabling the corruption that is destroying our country.
Related Websites none
