Jerry's Blog

That's what I'm calling it anyway. This financial mess that we have found ourselves in as a country. It is a pure breakdown in the Accountability Cycle across all sectors of our country - Business, Government, Personal, and Social.  The expectations were set - I loan you money to buy a home, you pay me back. Never mind that the expectations were unrealistic - Home prices will continue to climb forever, you only have to pay interest until the balloon payment hits and then we will refinance if for you, you can't afford it but we will do it for you anyway. We signed up for it by the thousands and when the time came to pay the piper, we just walk away from it, refusing to take responsibility for our decisions. Sorry Mr. / Mrs. Banker, the house it not worth as much as the paper it's written on and apparently neither is my word. Good luck, see ya, have a nice day.

By no means am I laying everything at the feet of the homeowner who was trying to get the best house he could for his family. Speculators trying to make a quick buck, home builders recklessly plowing ahead even when the indicators and common sense said to stop, unscrupulous loan originators stretching facts and overlooking details, and mortgage holding companies that failed to do their due diligence when buying up those packages. All these groups have a hand in this breakdown. Don't blame the government for not warning us. Anyone with a little common sense could see it was an unsustainable bubble. When housing gets to be seven, eight and even ten times income there is no way that it can be sustained. But we kept going, heedlessly rushing into the euphoria of easy money. And now it's reality check time and no one wants to ante up. No one wants to face the consequences of our national failure. Fingers are pointing and politicians are all clamoring to be the first to say, "I told you so...You should have listened to me." Of course none really did, not loud enough to be heard anyway.

The solution that is being proffered by Washington is to let them all off the hook. We have to do this they say to avoid a 1930's style calamity. I wonder if that would not a good thing. Many good things came out of the great depression. Parks were built. Roads were built. Families pulled together and got through. Yes, many people went hungry a good bit, but we are a nation of obese people that could stand to take a few national pounds off.  A lot of good, well thought out laws were enacted many of which are still in effect today and need to be rethought because of the change in the times.   Out of the Great Depression, we came to be the World Power. Admired by our friends and feared by all.  A bail out could just put us deeper in national debt, despised as a nation of whiners.

Why don't we take a national stand and hold those responsible for this mess accountable and face the consequences together as a nation. Then let's set the expectation with our government to fix our to rebuild our financial system with the proper safeguards in place. This is a great opportunity to right many wrongs in our system. It's not up to Bush, or Obama, or McCain. It's up to us to take a stand and speak in a unified national voice. To set the expectation with our government. To take responsibility for our past actions. To hold those accountable for failure. And to face the consequences head on.