Inspiration

I was involved in an interesting discussion this evening. The conclusion of which was as follows: 

A good leader can't and doesn't do too much to change events. The biggest thing they can do is to inspire the people of the nation or organization to make changes and improve things.....it's the people, after all, who move and change a nation, not the leaders. As all good leaders do in any organization, the best thing they can do is to inspire everyone else to make things better, and not tie their collective hands to prevent them from doing that once the inspiration has got hold of their imaginations. 

I can't see McCain inspiring too many people to be honest. Not only is he too old and tired to inspire all but the strongest of his believers, but more significantly, he follows the Bush doctrine of leading by fear. If this country votes McCain and Palin into the White house, will the last person to leave please turn the lights out, or just show the Mexicans where the switch is.

save it

Bloody hell, 2 posts in one day. Whatever...I read this article on the financial mess and thought it was the clearest one out there. I particularly liked the ending.

Dear Main Street,
Are you trying to make sense of what's happening here on Wall Street?
Don't worry -- you aren't alone. A lot of people even here are trying to figure that out. It isn't that complicated, but Wall Street is so full of mumbo jumbo that it's easy to get confused -- or bored.
Say "collateralized mortgage obligation" a dozen times and see if you can stay awake.
Stick with me, though, Main Street and I'll explain what's going on here in New York.
Believe it or not, you've seen this movie before. And I don't mean, "It's A Wonderful Life," though that movie isn't far from the mark.
What's going on is a classic industry shakeout -- not all that different from the shake-out of the American steel or auto industries over the past half century. Just in a much shorter time frame.
In just nine months, we have gone from five big, independent Wall Street brokers to only two -- Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
The government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's largest mortgage companies, a bit more than a week ago.
And just Tuesday, we nationalized AIG, the world's largest insurer.
Of course, consolidation inevitably produces winners and losers. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US broker, is a loser. It went bankrupt two days ago.
Bank of America is a winner. It bought brokerage Merrill Lynch three days ago and is now our nation's largest financial institution.
That's a lot of change in not a lot of time.
And when there's change, there's uncertainty. Today, for example, we still don't know whether Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings & loan, will stay independent.
Uncertainty isn't good for any business, as it destroys confidence. It is especially bad for our financial system, because the system runs entirely on confidence. I lend you money confident that you will pay me back. If I don't have confidence in you, I won't lend.
Which is just like Wall Street today. Our nation's financial institutions don't really trust each other. And for good reason.
In all, about $2 trillion dollars of lower quality mortgages are spread about our financial system. Many of these are now in default which threatens the banks that hold them.
And of course the lack of trust spirals. Less lending by banks to each other, less lending to Main Street's companies and less lending to you. In the end, the money's not there for you to get a mortgage or auto loan.
And you account for 70% of the economy. So when the money isn't there, that's bad for everybody. Without credit, you get a crisis -- a credit crisis.
Of course, we deserve heaps and heaps of blame. Wall Street took the mortgages, sliced and diced them a hundred ways, sold and traded them. We took a nice cut along the way, blissfully oblivious to the risks.
We do have a remarkable talent for cooking up crazy get-rich schemes. Remember the Internet bubble? That was less than a decade ago.
But Main Street, you're also to blame.
Recall the hundreds of billions in bad mortgages that are now killing Wall Street? That was money lent to you, Main Street, for homes and condos many of you could not afford.
And ironically, it is now your money that will be used to repay those dud mortgages because we on Wall Street are running out of money.
The government takeovers of AIG and Fannie and Freddie? That's your money. J.P. Morgan's buyout of broker Bear Stearns last March was also your money,
You might not like it. We on Wall Street may not like it. And even the politicians in Washington may not like it.
But nobody has a choice -- unless you happen to have an odd yearning to live in a barter economy.
So Main Street, our crisis is unfortunately your crisis. We made the mess together and now we pay for it together.
The mergers, government takeovers and bankruptcies that will continue to sweep our financial system are a good sign. It means that we are fixing ourselves. Albeit at gunpoint.
Isn't it strange the way our free market works? The government saves Wall Street -- and you Main Street foot the bill.
My advice? Save this letter and show it next time we all embark on another stupid misadventure.
Sincerely,
Wall Street
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

What a bloody mess....part 2.

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"

Well, it's certainly messy out there, but is it really as bad as all that? Is it? I don't actually know. There's a lot of confusion and panic going on, I know that for sure, compounded by the ridiculous news media, who are revelling in the chaos, hoping to boost their ratings as a parasitic by-product of all that's swirling around them. It reminds me of a wonderful part of the movie "V for Vendetta" (which is an intelligent and great social commentary movie if ever I saw one) where the government was concerned that it's authority was being undermined. It instructed the news media to overwhelm the populace with bad news to frighten them into silence and to make them refocus on their immediate worries and fears rather than the government's failings. It's a well practiced tactic that works wonders. The brief montage that followed was pretty typical of what we are seeing today (probably deliberately done) and was not too different from the current round of financial disaster news scaring most people to death. Is all this calamity accidental? I very much doubt it. Either the government is totally incompetent or this is deliberate. You choose which one....but neither is very appealing I have to admit, and the only rational conclusion is that they shouldn't be in control either way. If you get lobbyists running the system, then policies will be short sighted and to their benefit. Not for us, the collective "We, the people". Whatever happened to that anyway? Patriotism is towards the country after all, not the current flock of idiots on charge. So who is in charge then? Bush....er come on....try again.

"World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings."
~ Denis Healey. (Former British Defense Minister)

What I do know is that the Federal Reserve, (which is actually neither Federal nor a Reserve), now owns the loans on 75% of all mortgages in the US...that means they own those houses. They are now also the majority owner (85%) of AIG, the country's biggest insurer. Apparently, the list is going to grow from what I saw in the headlines issued today. Sounds like a major transfer of wealth from the private sector (i.e. "we" the shareholders) to a conglomeration of the private banks that makes up the Fed, and of course this is after the profits had been taken out. Sound familiar does it? Well it does have an Enron feel to it doesn't it. I guess if it worked once, they can do it again. Watch this space for a repeat performance coming soon no doubt. And who do you think pays for this? They certainly don't. We, the tax payers, stupidly do. I guess it's nice work if you can get it.

Conspiracy? Not really. An agenda is more like it. A well thought out and patiently implemented one at that, but an agenda all the same. Here's a couple of good quotes to back that up.

"If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
~Thomas Jefferson.

"We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest of consent."
~Paul Warburg. CFR and architect of the Federal Reserve. System. February 17th. 1950.

what a bloody mess

So Bae Jiao, our illustrious and quiet dog has never been know as a brave one. She used to conceal herself behind her larger brother in times of stress and shakes like a leaf at the slightest presence of danger. And she's a big dog too, at 70 pounds. Strange, but one big cute softy. So a couple of nights ago I let her out for her pre night's sleep pee. Off she tootled into the rose bush and a nice loud howl resulted. I thought it was a coyote, but nope, I later found out it was her. She'd nicked her ear on a rose thorn. I didn't know this at the time and in she trotted, happy as could be now and proceeded to shake her head as she regularly does. A red fountain resulted, spraying tiny droplets of blood in every direction. Thankfully, the floor is wood, so it was easy to clean up. I checked her over and found the incriminating dripping ear. So, out came the antiseptic cream and I washed and cleaned up the ear. That's when the shaking started, with a few yelps for good measure. After all the cleaning up had finished, she decided she was going to get a drink from her bowl. So, up she stood and repeated the head shaking, spraying a fresh coat of red everywhere. Oh bugger. Rinse and repeat. This time out came the ice cream cone for her and she looked most disgruntled in her new stylish collar. The vet thought it was only a minor scratch, but, as is always the case when she see him, she shook like the world was about to end. Perhaps it's the way they take her temperature? I think if I had a thermometer stuck up my ass every time I went to see the doctor, I'd be very reluctant to go too.