Reflecting on rewarding failure: markets

2 sets of financial institutions to think about, and the political leadership that’s deciding where to throw our money 

(1) Some made good loans and have lost no money in the recent meltdown.  These are the community banks and credit unions that know their business and make good decisions in all market conditions

(2) Some made bad loans and took foolish risks with other peoples money.  These are the investment banks and broker dealers that have the world teetering on the brink of a New Age in international finance.

So, which group are we investing our taxpayer dollars in?  That should be enough evidence to evaluate the proposals of our new would-be political leaders.

What makes sense to me would be to make the $850B to the companies/organizations that have demonstrated good judgment.  Let the big boys fail, and let them go seek jobs in the community banks and go through their training programs and learn how to do it right, before they are entrusted with the treasure of the nation. 

Think that’s likely to happen?

2d reflections: if that makes sense to you, then how smart is it to give major money decisions to a class of people like politicians who believe in big elaborate costly solutions to do more of the same?  This is such a huge piece of evidence in support of federalism and limited government, that I can’t think of anything more convincing.

If the politicans have their way they will have even more of our money dumped into a system on a global scale that has just failed on regional and national levels. Why should we have any confidence that their policy making stratregy will work any better this time?

The first rule of holes is “when you are in a hole, stop digging”.  the government solution looks like more and faster digging with bigger shovels. They will only stop when we are so exhausted that they can’t extort any more money. 

They just told Japanese banks and Mitsubishi (same thing, by the way) that we will guarantee their investment in our banks.  Hey taxpayer, how does that make you feel a you look at your mortgage payment?

Do you seriously want to elect people that believe like this? Unfortunately these guys have removed any real choice, as Senators Barack McCain and John Obama are equally clueless in understanding the systems fundamentals.

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