Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Fed is doing "Great" so far. Now it should insist on systems that will force us to learn the big lesson

The new system of check and balance should include the following "critical" and "essential" components:
1. Corporations should only be allowed to grow bigger if in the past they have clearly shown such great moral responsibility to the public. Examples of immoral performances are: Paying inordinate sums of money to officers and employees; a pattern of lying or concealing things from the public no matter how seemingly insignificant these things are; their record of hiring and firing quality and " moral "employees and contractors; etc.
2. The key officers of the company should voluntarily and consistently display to the public the full extent of their personal finances and those of their families that have any form of business or dealings with the company. An ideal executive would be someone who completely renounces any more additional wealth to what he already got.
3. Publicly listed companies should require key executives to subscribe to an oath that states their priority of allegiance: first, to the public; second, to their creditors; third, to their stockholders; and fourth, to their employees.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Subprime Scare and the Subprime Alibi

Just like the 9-11 tragedy that terrorized us into invading Iraq, the subprime "scare" got us believing that our financial existence now depends on the investment companies that are bankrupt or going bankrupt. And the velocity and extent to which this scare is building up is turning more each day into reality. I tend to believe that even if all of the subprime mortgages would end up into foreclosure, this thing should not be happening. In reality, most of the mortgages that are in foreclosure now are NOT sub-prime mortgages, but mortgages by people who had very good credit that enabled them to borrow more money to buy several houses on speculation. In other words, some people have invented this "scare".
The billions of dollars of junk and garbage are in the investment companies that are holding raw or repackaged mortgages and in some banks who lent to off-balance sheet companies created by the same banks. The people who invented these junk investments are supposeded to be astute and sophisticated investors in the eyes of the law and they knew that this was coming but their greed got the better part of them. All of these sophisticated and highly-knowledgeable investors are using the subprime scare as an alibi to continue on with their "raid" and this time they have targetted the biggie - the Federal Reserve.
Folks, EVERY penny at the Federal Reserve is our BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS. SHOULD WE ALLOW THIS ANY LONGER?

Our Mortgage Co. Never Did a Single Subprime Mortgage

My son Patrick was in charge of originating mortgages. When the 100% financing program came out, he wasn't really for it from the first time. He thought that someone who wants to take on a bigger responsibility of owning a home should have had the earlier responsibility of saving for a reasonable downpayment that will enable them to afford the resulting monthly payments.
When lenders started lending to subprime borrowers (even up to 100% of the homevalue) he became even more against it to the point of quitting the business. I am just glad that he followed his gut-feelings about all of these, because if not, our conscience would now be bothering us.
The business world needs a lot to learn about the direct link between morality and success.
"There are millions of people who are successful as millionaires but sadly, there are so few millionaires who are successful in what they have been meant to be ".