Month: October 2011

I’ve said several times that I thought the business world was loaded with people that behaved in what could be described as a treasonous manner. I suppose that my suggestion about having them shot by a firing squad after their trials was a bit over the top.

It’s been interesting to watch the Occupy Wall Street crowd try to describe their beliefs. Depending on who is asked you’ll get a different answer about why they’re occupying anything.

There is always a person saying that the rich don’t pay enough taxes.

I don’t think these folks have really thought their argument through, here’s an example why;

I once had a conversation about Obamacare with a gentleman educated at MIT. I’m paraphrasing here, his opinion was that the rich had more than enough to pay for everyone else’s Obamacare and that the government should just take their money via higher taxes. When I asked what happens when His income bracket was considered “RICH” and his money was being taken? He responded that there’d be another discussion then.

I pointed out that he was advocating what I understood was socialism in it’s worst form. And that the “Rich” had more than enough resources to simply leave the country. Even if the rich didn’t leave, the system that he was advocating was certainly going to act as a disincentive for anyone working hard to become rich.

I did enjoy pointing out that this persons beloved Lakers had a disproportionately large number of very wealthy individuals. The conversation cooled after that.

My point is, that all too often “The Rich” has become a code word for White Republicans. Herman Cain being the notable exception, however he does fit the “Rich” category. It’s going to be tough to get cooperation out of any group of people who feel that they’re being singled out and essentially punished because of their success.

The other major group seems to be more on point

This group seems to be demanding accountability from the financial community.

The question is what kind of accountability? I think it’s safe to assume that the Obscene Bonuses will not be paid back and the cash is safely in a Cayman numbered account.

So what are we as a nation wanting?

This is where it all falls down. Without some clear points and the ability to articulate those points it won’t take long before Occupy Wall Street is viewed as a bunch of disenfranchised, unemployed “have-not” rabble.

Once that happens the moment will be lost and the changes OWS organizers were after will be lost in the chaos of water cannons, tear gas, and flying bricks and bottles.

I hope the OWS folks understand this and have some kind of plan.

In my desire to be helpful, I’ve come up with a list of demands.

No more offshoring of Consumer Financial business. 

This includes ALL transactions, record keeping, bill payment, collection, in short anything that puts The private data of Americans in the hands of foreign nationals.

Lets face it, right from the get go this is obviously a bad idea. My fax machine is deluged with calls, some from Indian cell phones trying to collect on loans that have been paid off for decades. I can only imagine what that would be like if I actually had past due bills.

If you want a chilling thought, realize that if these folks have your phone number they probably also have old account numbers, addresses, and possibly social security numbers. In short they have everything necessary to create a false identity.

Now think about some entrepreneurial soul in the Philippines or India who frankly doesn’t understand how damaging it is to have their identity stolen, selling a nice packet of your information for $25 a pop to a criminal… If that doesn’t make your sphincter tighten I don’t know what will.

All the Mortgage Lenders Have to take a Haircut on their outstanding loans

We all know that a lot of property was way overvalued. I once looked at a $400,000.00 one bedroom condo, with no parking in a less than great area in San Jose. It was a “Fixer-upper” in that there were no fixtures in the bathroom and drywall walls were missing. At the time I busted up laughing at the realtor and told her she had a great sense of humor. She didn’t get it, and  I didn’t buy the condo. That kind of money could buy me a 4 column antebellum mansion in the South with a ton of land. For me living in San Jose just wasn’t worth it.

Part of the housing market implosion was caused by folks being told they could “Flip” their housing investment and trade up. That led in part to the overheating of the housing market and an unrealistic valuation of the worth of homes. The Mortgage Lenders themselves and their insane lending practices just kept fueling the bloat.

Come on folks… when does it make sense that you can buy a house with less documentation than you need to buy a car?

Those poor lending practices were just a way for the banks to obtain property that artificially inflated their net worth on paper.

Most of the lenders knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the “No Documentation” loans were probably going to default. The bankers were hoping to “Flip” the loans at face value before they got stuck with the default. It was a game of musical chairs…

Well now the music has stopped and the banks aren’t victims… They were players. It’s time for them to pay up.

The average American family who didn’t use their homes like an ATM shouldn’t have to pay the price for bad banking and those folks that did.

We should demand that mortgage lenders, lower the interest rates of all outstanding mortgage rates to 2% or less, cut the values of the mortgages to what the properties are really worth, stop all foreclosures, and make the mortgage lenders put all the foreclosed homes in their inventories back on the market.

Where possible, any displaced families should be offered their homes back under the new terms.

Bring Jobs back to this country

There was a sound bite on the news the other day. This lady in North Carolina made a comment like; “They put those people to work in China by putting all of us out of work.”

She makes a great observation. What kind of jobs are there for Americans now?

The President has advocated Trade schools and certificate programs in lieu of college diplomas.

We can’t all be Lawyers, Financiers, Politicians, Doctors, or information workers. The latter category being outsourced so fast it makes your head spin.

So what other professions do we have?

We do little heavy manufacturing these days compared to the past. Many of our steel plants are shuttered, our Auto industry has been under siege for decades. There are very few consumer electronic manufacturers here anymore. There is virtually no textile manufacturing here. Mechanics and repair professions are still in demand. Most of these positions have traditionally been filled by Trade school graduates.

Where does this leave those who have been displaced by outsourcing?

Unemployed!

So why not demand companies bring the jobs home?

The answer almost always is that American workers are too expensive. Really? I know I’d take less money if the other choice was unemployment. Of course the worker taking less money also means that taxes have to be lower. The cost of goods and services have to be proportionately lower and there’s the problem.

No one knows how to make that happen.

There’s a sense of “Fairness” in our country. There’s a belief that everything should be fair and if we bring these jobs home there are going to be people that are still making 100K a year and there will be people that only make 15K a year. This class disparity is considered unfair, (even though it exists today and always has.) folks LIFE is inherently unfair! Get over it.

Bring the jobs home. Put people to work, and let the free market economy sort it out. We know that free market economies work because of the housing market debacle.

Houses became overinflated because lenders were making obscenely large sums available. Now housing prices are falling because people can’t get loans for obscene amounts anymore. People that bought high or leveraged the shit out of their homes are screwed. But housing prices are falling and “Correcting” to a more realistic value.

The same is true of steak, corn, chicken, turkey, internet, electricity, or whatever. If lots of people turn off their internet or Cable TV because it’s too expensive, the cost will drop. Folks will buy chicken instead of steak, if the cost of steak is too high. More people will learn to actually cook instead of relying on pre-prepared nukeit meals. or eating out. Maybe it will be a twofer, the prices will be lower and we’ll get a nuclear family again…

My point is, that keeping jobs offshore because you’re worried that the American worker won’t work for less is stupid when you have so many workers unemployed in the first place.

We should have faith in our economy, and we should nurture that economy by putting our people to work instead of folks in third world cesspools that fucking hate our guts anyway.

So there, you OWS people. You’ve got a simple list of 3 demands and you’re welcome to use them. Hopefully you’ll wake up and realize that simply occupying anyplace without a reasonably well articulated point isn’t actually helping.

You’re just killing the grass under your tent.