The Unnatural Disaster

It is impossible to visit any news site, read any newspaper, or sit in any shop without encountering at least one conversation about the financial crisis. People are discussing it as though it formed out of thin air. No one is willing to acknowledge their culpability in this. Ignorance is no excuse for many of those who benefited for they were well informed of the risks of playing the housing market. Flippers multiplied like fleas and everyone was taking their slice of American Pie. The banks are certainly complicit in this debacle. Every day became Christmas for even those with sub par credit. The Federal Reserve even joined in and "made it rain" like Lil Wayne dropping interest rates like they were hot. Where is Alan Greenspan now? Who is that you ask? Well instead of following Obama as if he is the messiah, perhaps it would better serve you to become more acquainted with the powers controlling the money. Now, poor Ben Bernanke has inherited a mess not entirely of his making.

What is important now is where we go from here? What lessons have we learned? These are lessons we supposedly learned following The Great Depression. As Dave Ramsey says, "Cash is king." Yet, we continue to favor leverage or debt over reason. I predict, that we'll learn and exercise this lesson for a little while that is until our impulses once again override our sense of reason. We must acknowledge the fact that humans are very emotional beings. Though we would like to believe we act rationally, every action is the result of either a motivation or a barrier. This financial mess has been motivated by a need to belong, a need to feel like a successful person, the kind of father or mother that can "do it big"--this culture of materialism.

My greatest sympathies go to the already disadvantaged and disenfranchised who will be further pushed into the oblivion of socio-economic despair by more stringent lending practices. These practices would be good for all if an educational and economic framework existed which imparted the wisdom of financial management. However, with a multi-billion dollar war and now a multi-billion dollar bail out, where are we to get the money for that?