Greedy People

I know about as much about the stock market as a mule knows about the Theory of Relativity, and probably even less about international finance and such.

I don't know Fanny Mae from Freddy Mac or how mortgages are sold over and over again. I can't compute compound interest and know nothing about bond yields and trailing stops.

But I do realize that the US economy is in a tough place and I know there's enough blame to go around. One financial expert said that Alan Greenspan left interest rates too low for too long and made credit too easy to obtain for people who couldn't afford it.

We all know about government's role, or should I say non-role in the whole thing and now they're wanting to take taxpayer money and bail out badly run companies, a dangerous move in my book, since there could well be a domino effect on Wall Street and they can't possibly bail out every company that gets in trouble. So where does it stop?

As I stated before, I don't pretend to understand the world of Wall Street and high finance, but one thing I do know, when we get to the bottom of the barrel of causes, we will find a huge chunk of one of man's baser emotions, greed.

I have nothing against the heads of companies making ridiculous amounts of money as long as they make ridiculous amounts of money for their employees and stockholders.

But when these guys run companies into the ground and bail out in their golden parachutes and leave the stockholders and employees holding the bag it is plain out wrong and no amount of lawyer talk or high brow doubletalk can make it right.

Stockholders put their money into the hands of these people and have a right to know that the executives of a company are at least as exposed as they are to the fortunes of the stock they've invested in.

How many times have you seen it happen lately, some company goes belly up and you don't hear a thing about it until a day or two before it happens? In the meantime the top executives, having prior knowledge of the debacle, have time to divest themselves of their poison holdings in one way or another and go their merry ways in their limos and private jets, while the 401K's of everyday Americans lose large percentages of their value.

That's greed, folks. That's saying, I've got mine and I don't give a whit about you or what you lose because of my incompetence, I'm going to buy a few mansions and spend the rest of my life skiing or lying around in the sun while you scramble and try to make some provision for your fastly approaching old age and you employees can just get out on the street at fifty years-old and try to find another lucrative profession.

You can pass laws, make regulations and make long, puffed-up speeches on the floor of the Congress, but it will do little to abate greed.

The only way to deal with greedy people is to take away the thing they cherish the most, their ill-gotten money.

I could live with that, Boonie!

Here’s Charlie’s take on Sarah:

Ain’t No Mystery

In the last couple of weeks, there is no denying that Sarah Palin has attained superstar status in the political arena and the Democrats and the mainstream media are scratching their heads and wondering what hit them. In fact, in a matter of days, she has had more media scrutiny than Barack Obama has had in the past two years.

I seriously doubt if they will admit the truth about Sarah Palin, even if they were able to accept it. There’s no deep dark mystery here, no Rosetta Stone required to decipher the Palin phenomenon. It’s as simple as first grade arithmetic.

Sarah Palin is the first politician to come along in decades who is truly one of “We The People”. The distance between Alaska and Washington, DC has never been more apparent than when you hear this lady speak.

Relaxed, confident, feminine and totally unafraid of the left-wing media that so terrifies the beltway bunch. She comes off as somebody who could live next door to you and very well come by to borrow a cup of sugar or offer to pick your kids up from school.

When you compare her to Barack Obama, he comes off as stiff, formal, arrogant and elitist, somebody who hides behind barricades and bodyguards, the kind of guy you’d never think of giving a hug to.

Compare her to Hillary Clinton, and Hillary comes off as an ice queen who has never done her own laundry or cooked a Thanksgiving dinner.

Compare her to Joe Biden, and Biden comes off as a guy you’ve probably never seen without a suit on, who represents politics as usual and the same old insider trading that has been going on in Washington for way too long.

Compare her to Harry “the war is lost, the surge is not working” Reid, and Harry Reid comes off like a pessimistic old man who hoards pennies and kicks cats.

Compare her to Nancy Pelosi who says we simply can’t do anything about our energy situation. Sarah Palin represents hope and practical solutions like drilling in ANWR in her home state of Alaska. Of course she’ll have to talk her running mate into it.

The bottom line is that Sarah Palin, in her feminine style of dress, her hair fashionably done, wearing makeup and talking common sense is just somebody who represents the regular folks, not the special interest groups, in fact she wouldn’t even allow a lobbyist into her office as Governor of Alaska.

What Barrack Obama and all the empty suits in the Democrat party can’t understand is that Sarah Palin represents somebody America feels they could sit down and have a cup of coffee with, someone who has not spent her life in politics or academia, but has been a wife, a mother and an ordinary American who has experienced first hand the problems rank and file citizens face on a daily basis.

And something they had better learn right away. America really likes Sarah, we identify with her, and a slap at her is a slap at us.

And Americans don’t like being slapped.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

September 8, 2008

http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2008-090808.htm

I love Charlie, but from my understanding of the problem it is not so much greed as entitlement that got us here. Americans believe that the home ownership should be for everyone, but fail to understand that not everyone has the capability to handle that responsibility.

The Democrats demanded loans for low income folks via the Community Reinvestment Act as an entitlement. These loans were made to un-credit worthy people with no verification of income or assets, no down payment, and little consideration of the applicant's ability to make payments. In fact, in 1995, the Feds "streamlined” the regulatory requirements for CRA loans telling banks that participation in a credit-counseling program, many of which are federally funded, could be used as “proof” of a low-income applicant’s ability to make his mortgage payments. In other words, federal bank regulators required banks to make bad loans based on nonexistent credit standards. When the Republicans tried to pass reform in 2005, it was seen as racist.

Many of the folks who signed on to these mortgages, coming from a low income area, are uneducated...although it is mostly by their own lack of willingness to learn as many have risen above poverty by applying themselves...to the point that they did not understand the mortage document they were signing and could not afford a lawyer to explain it to them. Now that they have failed to reach the expectations made of them, they are once again claiming victim status and expecting the Government to bail them out.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.