This information and opinion item is in response to some of the voices of reason: Neal Boortz, Jerry Doyle, Larry Kudlow; and some of the libertarian purists, and “conservative” fundamentalists who want no intervention, regulation, help to the less fortunate in our capitalist economic system – ever. I’m going to explain why sometimes rules must be broken, not just to accommodate the rule-breakers but innocent souls who have been caught up in fraudulent circumstances, and us all.
Before continuing, this observer feels compelled to add that I have no profits, investments, property, obligations that will be affected by what I have to say here, except, as we all do, very indirectly – through the economy in general overall.
I’ll attempt to establish some bona fides by pointing out that I was raised in ethnic Chicago; have one foot, most of my family, including a lot of in-laws, in a racial-ethnic minority community; have and have had many friends in other racial-ethnic minority communities. I’ve learned how all of them at times do business:
A family of (legal) immigrants, from Europe, Latin America, Asia; or natives from “back East,” as they’re known here, “out West,” moves in. Soon, some more distant relatives, in-laws, friends, join them. They all want to have their own homes. So, everyone pools their money, and the original or senior family gets a house; they all chip-in to make the payments, while everyone saves their surplus income. Once they get ahead, everyone pools their resources so the next most senior family/group members can make the step up to a home of their own, etc.
At first, the original family, even though everyone is working, often at very low-paying jobs, can’t qualify for a loan, so they shop around, usually for a loan broker from their own ethnicity/background. The loan broker, traditionally, knows how the long-range plan will operate. He or she will go along with the fiction that the family can afford the loan – knowing that the extended family, in-laws, friends will make sure the payments are made, so they may all keep their place in line and on schedule to get their own homes. It’s a good, fair deal for everyone.
Sometimes, even often, the buyers/borrowers don’t understand what they’re signing, due to linguistic or cultural barriers, ignorance, inexperience, faith and trust in their lender; but these buyers are not speculators or scammers – they just want to get a home, and help the others in their group get one, too. They know they may have to pay a higher rate, for a while, because they’re foreign, other outsiders, poor, can’t really convincingly document that they’re good for the debt, even though they are. These deals rely on faith and trust – that the group’s members won’t screw the others; that the loan seller isn’t lying to them; that the real estate person isn’t inflating the price just to get a fatter commission, etc.
Then, along comes a voracious loan shark, who sees some likely victims, no matter to him or her that they are some of his or her “own people” – racially, ethnically, culturally. Truth in lending? Screw that. Playing fair with the honest but unsophisticated? We must be joking. The object here is to $ell, $ell, $ell! So, when it’s time to sign on the dotted lines, the innocents are led to slaughter.
Well, that’s capitalism. Too bad for you. You’ve learned your lesson the hard way. Tough titty. I’d love to help you, but I gave at the office. Don’t go away mad, just go away. Hey, your tears are dripping on my desk. But, wait, there’s the “domino effect” as these bad loans ripple outward through our entire economy, and beyond. As I pointed out last month, the loan brokers made the deals, then passed them on to greedy chumps here, in Europe, and China. Ha, ha, ha! We’ laughing all the way to the unemployment line, now that our latest subprime operation has folded. (Don’t worry about us. We’ll set up more, later.)
But, as Larry Kudlow warned, “I’m concerned about commercial paper” (that’s not being serviced because the penultimate lenders are now gun-shy). So, again as I said last month, we have to ‘help,’ in the ways I detailed – not with bailouts but financial bridges over troubled waters – renegotiations, extensions, etc. – for “the little guy”; and the bigger fish, and the bigger ones further up the line, all the way to the really big fish at the top of the financial food chain, to stay afloat.
We’ll develop this theme further elsewhere, when and as needed; but, while capitalism is the best system, it can’t descend into anarchy, or the chaos will bring the whole temple down on us all. Unbridled market capitalism is fine, theoretically, but at its extremes, threatens even itself, so it’s not really practical.
The still-reverberating and echoing Big Crash of 1929 was not caused by Smoot-Hawley, or The New Deal, or labor unions. In the words of Herbert Hoover, himself an early international capitalist, “The only problem with capitalism is capitalists.” (Too damned greedy.) So, at its logical conclusion in the current cycle, the enormous money-loving greed of the loan brokers, and their co-conspirators – absent regulators, eager loan buyers drawn in by teaser-rate ARM’s, etc., has brought the whole system to the brink of collapse.
The suggestions I made, the advice I quoted from Donald Trump, and the ideas of others, were wisely adopted, or at least given lip-service, by government officials, from the top on down. Now, it remains to be seen if they’ll be timely, energetic, sincere in their efforts. Robert Steel was on Lawrence Kudlow’s show today making the correct sounds; I only hope they’ll be beefed-up, backed up, echoed by big enough deeds. We can’t afford too little, too late, here and now.
Getting back to the good people who pooled their resources to get themselves homes: A lot of these fine folks don’t have the benefit of the time, neighborhood, mental, and physical resources to become as economically savvy as people such as Lawrence Kudlow, Neal Boortz, Jerry Doyle, et al. It’s not that they’re stupid but because they’re too busy trying to survive, to get ahead, to help themselves and the others in their extended family and circle of friends get and keep homes.
Moreover, as I also pointed out in these pages, last month and before, our essentially anti-American (and anti-capitalist), big-government, socialist indoctrination centers, which are disguised as ‘schools,’ have left our citizens and immigrant residents just about defenseless when it comes to contracts, interest, other financial and business concepts. Even a lot of the ‘teachers’ of economics are ignorant of these and other facets of not just capitalism but socialism; many of them are only familiar with The Communist Manifesto, and the scribblings of various Communist saints and gurus. Too many of our people don’t “get it.”
The more advantaged and educated among us must now lend a helping hand – for the benefit of those good people, and us all, in but one small step toward the timely implementation of a National Capitalist economic system, as part of the growing, strengthening, expanding, and accelerating National Revolution.
没有评论:
发表评论