Money! Money! Money!

Even you are agnostic, sometimes you have to think whether there is some sort of superpower up there that makes things happen, because when they come, they don’t occur with pure coincident.

In early September, I attended a CANW meeting in White Rock. One of the presenters was a professor from UIUC. His presentation was on the contemporary issues in our economic and financial world. It was an interesting conversation between him and the audience, the crowd really got involved with his talk. He made a strong point against the current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson. He said there was strong controversy between the academic world and the current leaders of American’s monetary system. He was convinced that Bernanke’s way simply wouldn’t work in the long run mostly because it created too much of potential moral hazard. Big dollars bailout plans would always give firms a feeling of forever haven of refuge. He even traced this notion back to the last few years of Alan Greenspan’s days. It partly was this renowned gentleman’s idea and Bernanke was only a supporter back in the days.

Soon after that meeting, the financial world stumbled, in a catastrophic way. Liquidity in the banking system clogged. Credit market crumbled. Stock market plummeted with historic marks. Suddenly, the world seemed to come to an end because one street in Manhattan was bleeding. Should people be surprised? No. Volcanoes don’t erupt without amassing powers for centuries. This was just a burst-out after so many years of accumulation, of what? Greed. Then, there came the astronomical number of dollars of injection from the American government to this so-called free market, to save big corporations only in the name of saving the system/world. When it was not enough, actually far short of saving anything, there came the $700 billion bailout plan from a president who thought he had not left enough notorious pages on American history. On hearing that, I laughed: “This is disgusting. Fed, please save some trees.” I had no idea what $700 billion means, I only know the printing machine for the Fed would be busy. Although it was rejected by the House the first time, we all knew it was going to be passed as legislation with the way the government was pushing it. There seemed no way of solving this problem if the plan didn’t get implemented. People are not dumb, that money cannot save the world, neither the Americans, nor New York City or Manhattan, it was only for a street hidden in the shadow beneath some skyscrapers. Let’s relax, lay back and watch the roller coaster on the tickers for the next little while, if not for too long. Isn’t it funny to watch those people dressed so nicely but look so confused by making this world more complicated themselves!? Wall Street has been that magic place for so long in the American Dreams, and it will continue being it. The only thing I wonder? We have the law to throw criminals into prisons, but why it also bails out greedy snobs who burn other people’s hard earned money?!