Prologue: When you try to soar too high, eventually you will reach your limit and come crashing down. A large group of individuals attempted to fly to heights unheard of, and fell harder than anyone could have ever thought. Unfortunately, they may have brought the rest of the world down with them...
After months of strains, concerns, and sub prime mortgages, things had to break, and break they did. In the span of a few days former Wall Street giants Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG were all belly up, and Wall Street was changed forever.
The US Government found itself in a very precarious position, as they needed to do something to stop the bleeding. They proceeded to take control of mortgage giants Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as AIG.
Then when it was obvious that larger action was needed, and a $700 billion bail-out was passed. The US Government agreed to lend/loan billions of dollars to ailing banks to restore confidence in American markets and restabilize things.
Meanwhile, other markets all over the world have been collapsing. Banks have been nationalized, and millions of people have been laid off.
Also, the "Detroit Three" of GM, Ford, and Dodge, requested a bailout of their own, and after a series of dramatic developments, were eventually able to receive a very limited one as well. This prevented at least GM from filing for bankruptcy in the short term.
Now the response among normal people like you and I, has been mixed to say the least. There are obviously people who see this as nothing more than a scare tactic, however, those individuals seem to be in the minority. Most people are joining the collective "sky is falling" attitude, and see that we could be heading towards our worst financial problems since The Great Depression.
This has already lead to tightening of the metaphorical belt on both an individual and a collective level. Every time you open up the papers, there is some talk about what the governments are going to do to help us in this problem. Are they going to spend more to get out of a recession? Are they going to cut taxes or increase them? Everyone seems to have suggestions, but nobody has an answer, at least not yet.
However, there is one question that has not been asked. What is going to be done to hold the people responsible for this mess accountable? Why did so many wealthy and intelligent people give out sub-prime mortgages in the first place? How could they not have seen what was coming? Should they not at least have to answer for their short-sighted behaviour?
Apparently all they seem to be getting is a stern talking to, and another bail-out package, while decent, hard-working people have gloom and uncertainty to look forward to.
Hardly seems fair, does it?
Epilogue: There is still some optimism in these uncertain economic times. People all over the world, are developing ideas in new fields to reestablish economies, with a great deal of talk being made of "Green Collar" jobs in new forms of energy, or electric cars.
If that's enough to save us, we will have to wait and see. Because, somehow $700 billion was not enough to undo the damages.
Until next time,
G
Achieved Year in Review Posts:
The Fall of the Prophet - January 6th
The Rise of the Ice Queen -January 7th
An Unlikely Fruition - January 7th
Attack of the Three-Headed Terror - January 9th
A Most Sincere Inquiry - January 10th
The Golden League - January 14th
The Fall from Grace - January 16th
The Eighth Layer of Injustice - January 16th
The Transmuter of Nations - January 22nd
No comments:
Post a Comment