Posted By:
LetsGoBucsJim and his ilk certainly did cause this crises
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I certainly hope that you have much more expertise in whatever subject you teach than your showing in regards to our financial crisis.
First, Yes the investment banks and banks that engages in securitized bundled mortgages deserve a lot of blame for basically ignoring common sense.
But, guess what. The people that bought 200K, 300K, 500K, etc houses with no money down, with promises of 2% interest (and don't worry you can refinance when your house is worth 40% more in two years), or by lying on their mortgage applications also deserve a lot of blame.
Government regulators deserve blame for basically choosing to ignore an entire investment class. Congress deserves some blame for trying to social engineer through the mortgage companies (I agree with the spirit, but the practicality is just wrong).
So there is a lot of blame to be shared.
To take out your fustrations on one individual from one of the above groups is really wrong. If anything, the fact that the gentleman held onto 180K shares all the way to the bottom give an indication that he felt that his firm would work it out in the end. If you want to express that the government should let these institutions fail, then do so.
Your language is simply out of line. There is a thing called civil discourse. I would assume someone in higher education would practice it as a matter of courtesy and of professional responsibility.
And two things that were incorrect. One, Enron had an entire pipeline division that installed and ran pipelines in the Midwest. When Enron collapsed (and I knew people there making good money), it wasn't the traders I felt bad for.....it was the pipeline division, which had created the company and most of those workers were there 20-30 years and had all their 401K in Enron stock. So not everyone at Enron was trading paper.
Two, Wall Street and Venture Capitalist provide a key service in capitalism. Private money gets directed to new ideas and technologies and that creates jobs and opportunities for millions. So the idea that they don't produce anything is simply wrong. You can point to fee structures that are out of line, you can point to incentives that are out of line and lead to bad behavior - and I think most would agree with you. But saying that our financial industry doesn't produce anything is incorrect.
Finally, your comment about service people working hard.....wouldn't that also apply to those on Wall Street that work 14-15 hour days year after year to achieve their wealth? It is far too easy to identify the things that were out of line and apply them to everyone working on Wall Street. And I would note that the gentleman in question hasn't made any post seeking sympathy, he seems to have decided to pick himself up and move on as best he can......something I'd like to see more of this country practice.
Personally, I'd appreciate it if you removed some of the language that you've used in your posts.
Regards,