If we would like to build a statue in honour of American financial system, it should have all for legs in the air.
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For people who like to read about history here are some interesting facts. If a statue of a person on a horse in a park has all four legs on the ground that means that person died of natural cause.
If that horse has only one front leg lifted, the person died from battle wounds. If the horse in a park has both front legs in the air, the person died in a battle. If we would like to build a statue in honour of American financial system, it should have all for legs in the air.
For a long, long time, there were three certain things: death, taxes and Washington Mutual. There were smaller and bigger crises but there were no doubt that Washington Mutual will survive. In the meantime, nobody really asked how that glorious financial institution was managed. The last few months showed that it was managed poorly and under consent of the king. The current financial crisis lasts for many months so the king was obviously very aware of the situation.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is one fine advice, but the king should have known better. If it ain't broke doesn't mean that it will not be broken, and when that happens the whole kingdom may be in danger. So, if the king doesn't read the newspaper, as he once stated, maybe his consiglieres do that.
But when customers withdraw 16 billion dollars in ten days and the icon of the financial system ends in the dust it is hard to believe that they can read at all.
Merrill is in the trouble, Lynch too, Lehman and his brothers are not well, and Washington mutually followed them on their way to the abyss. Sachs is not golden anymore, Bear is not strong as the name suggests, and gentlemen Morgan and Stanley are not well, too. Fall was obviously under consent of the king, and all the king's horses and all the king's men can't save the banks without 700 billion dollars.
Did you know that Australia's mice are so sexually active that some males die of exhaustion? Replace in the previous sentence "sexually" with "financially" and "exhaustion" with "deregulation" and you'll get the picture. "You know", we all learned in schools of the western world, "all markets must be free. The business must be independent and state should not control markets".
It's bloody marvelous isn't it? Let the business runs free, let a thousand flowers bloom. But the full sentence is: "Let a thousand flowers bloom and you're bound to get a rose or two." It seems that king, his treasurer, and other crew members thought that freedom of business will solve everything.
But, absolute freedom in reality means absolute anarchy. A large group of financial managers thought that spectacular grow can last forever. Their dream had no connections to reality. Oil went up, houses went down, the spiral of destruction was started and we know where we are today. From time to time some financial crisis shows and sooner or later it goes away. That's normal.
But now the situation is very, very bad and the state wants to save the banks. Who gives the money to the state? The taxpayers. So, the taxpayers should save private institutions and that idea is not compatible with word "capitalism". I bet the king is very nervous these days, and I certainly bet that we'll wait a long time for the sign "Rise under consent of the king". ■
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is one fine advice, but the king should have known better. If it ain't broke doesn't mean that it will not be broken, and when that happens the whole kingdom may be in danger. So, if the king doesn't read the newspaper, as he once stated, maybe his consiglieres do that.