2009 Year in Review

Editorial

Sometimes you read something somebody else wrote, and it strikes a chord with you. It envelopes many of the thoughts you have thought.

In a magazine that I get purely by accident had letters to the editor that I was recently reading. Here is one letter that was in there:

“The current economic crisis has its roots in two very simple principals: greed and arrogance. Not everyone can afford a new car every two or three years, or a $750,000 house or two, or a $100,000 designer kitchen-and that’s just the beginning of the list of excessive spending that created the crisis. The equity one builds up in one’s home is not an “untapped, unlimited resource” to be used for excessive spending habits. This equity should be the “rainy day” savings. In most cases, the homeowners who are underwater have no one to blame but themselves. They signed the loan applications and agreements, spend the money, and at the end of the day, no one forced them to sign something they couldn’t repay.

“The lenders that gave out these insane mortgages are also to blame. Their corporate greed overshadowed good business sense. The leaders of the financial community should be forced to return their ill-gotten gains before another penny of federal aid is given to them.

“The stimulus package rewards the bad behavior of both parties that caused this crisis. The total bailout is $787 billion. There are 300 million people in the United States. Here’s the simple math: just give each taxpayer $250,000, at a cost to the government of $750 billion. People can pay off their mortgages, buy cars, or save for a rainy day. That would be the simple, logical, and equitable solution.” Taken from CFO magazine, submitted by Eric Wukitsch, Chief Financial Officer-Vantage Custom Classics Inc. in Avenel, New Jersey.

Wow. Makes too much sense. It can’t work. I’m sure there are a bunch of reasons that it truly wouldn’t work, but it sure would help a lot of people. College kids could go to school debt free. Automakers would sell cars. Banks would have money in them again. Why is it that the things that make sense at the basic level never end up being practical? There is probably little sense now in mulling over what happened to our economy or what should be done about it. Now we can only hold on and do what we can to keep our heads above water while the economy recovers. It’s a good time to enjoy the simple things with our families. I am committing myself to avoiding the economy for a few weeks in my editorial. It’s hard to avoid something that affects us all so much, but we also need to focus on positive news, and there isn’t a lot to be positive about in the economy right now.

Thanks to our readers and advertisers. I really appreciate your support. Have a great week.

by Ben Wolf, Guest Columnist
April 27, 2009