Thoughts on the "Bailout", leadership, & personal responsibilty

After missing the opportunity to post my usual Market Update in a timely manner, I turned my thoughts to the terribly chaotic, and uncertain atmosphere of real estate that threw my schedule off to begin with. All eyes are on Washington DC, and the debate over whether to bail out our financial system in the wake of a crisis of their own making. The emotional aspect is evident in just about every individual that voices an opinion, as well as many of those that are actually on camera. As much as I absolutely despise the situation that we currently find ourselves in, I cannot help but remember the old saying - "When you're up to your A** in alligators, it's hard to remember your initial task was to drain the swamp!"

I just finished reading countless commentaries from bloggers regarding the debate over the bailout, and the subsequent debate over having, or not having a presidential debate this Friday. McCain prefers to postpone the debate to devote attention to the problem, while Obama says the Commander in Chief needs to be able to multi task. Valid Points on both sides, but neither actually shows what I'm looking for from the next President. What this country needs right now is someone to show some conviction, and put forth a plan. It is obvious that Treasury Secretary Paulson would love to be what amounts to the most powerful man on the planet by gaining control of $700,000,000,000 to be doled out as he sees fit, and of course he (like the Presidential candidates) does not want to give a lot of details on how he would choose to spend it. The public can not be blamed for their lack of faith given the fact that just a couple of years ago, Hank was running Goldman Sachs, one of the very obvious perpetrators of the scandal we now face.

The problem starts when the public makes the decision that enough is enough, and we're not going to just keep giving silent acquiescence to our representatives spending our tax dollars without recourse, or accountability. As much as I hate to say it, we don't really have a choice this time.

I come to this conclusion for 3 reasons. The public outcry of holding the bankers feet to the fire, and the consequences be damned, comes from a belief that we can whether the storm that will ensue. After all, our country survived the Great Depression, so how can this be any worse? Here's the 3 reasons why.

First, during the Depression Era, the United States was not a debtor nation. That is to say, we did not have any significant foreign debt. I doubt there are many people reading this that are unaware of the fact that our country is barely able to keep up with the accruing interest on our National Debt, let alone make a dent in the principal. The fact that our debt is held by any number of nations that don't really believe in the American way is certainly going to have consequences if we need to renegotiate that debt.

Second, we now have what is admittedly a "service economy" which means we really don't actually produce anything (other than food, which we will need ourselves) that can be construed as a reliable export. We "built" our way out of the depression by constructing what has become our taken for granted infrastructure of highways, water, and power supplies, not to mention skyscrapers, etc. This building of America prior to WWII was made possible because we had true industrial might, and we focused it internally. America is not in a position to focus inward in that way again.

Third, we were energy independent during the depression. America was the world's leading producer of Oil, and Coal, which we used to build the dams that now supply our renewable electricity. If our Dollar collapses because of this financial crisis (and that is what they're really worried about), we not only won't be able to repay our debts, we won't be able to buy the energy necessary to keep the country running.

Because of all this, we are in a position where we really do have to do something, but we need to be sure we do the right thing. I know the tone of this blog is quite negative, but it does not have to be taken that way. If we truly believe in standing up, and taking personal responsibility (which is what frustrates us about those "leaders" in Washington looking to place blame) why can't we demand it of those who represent us. I certainly do not claim to have all the answers, and I know darn good & well that I'm not as smart as a Henry Paulson, or Ben Bernanke, but I'm also not in a mood to trust them to suddenly have my best interest at heart over their Uber Rich friends. On the other hand, I'm not against letting them orchestrate this bailout if they can be held accountable for the true taxpayer risk.

There is a simple way for them to earn my trust. All of these bankers such as Paulson, and Bernanke have been very successful, and as a result they have probably got the most to lose if everything goes bad. It seems to me if they had to put everything they own on the line, they would be much more inclined to be successful. I'm not opposed to paying them handsomely for saving our necks, I just want to know that if us ordinary John Q Taxpayers suffer, so does the guy making the decisions on our behalf.