I am going to beat a dead horse. The powers that be at Bears Stern should have to give back every dime, every bonus and every stock option - worthless though they may be. They took on a duty to their shareholders, stakeholders, employees and the finical community at large. It is unbelievable to me that they did not know what would happen if they continued to run their business so close to the edge and if a single one of the BIG BOYS gets on National TV and says otherwise - READ MY LIPS - HE IS LYING! Yet more dishonor!
I am not the only one saying this and I am fearful that many other firms will be heading this route. When will people learn. There is a RIGHT and THOUGHTFUL way to run a business and then there is this APPROACH. Which I ask you seems so profitable now.
At the end of the day, many people think they can fool all of the people all of the time - but the truth is - KARMA will exact her due - on her time table. She is not fooled.
2 comments:
What I'm most curious about is people crying for tighter regulation.
If Fed or the government had tried to tighten up the mortgage market in the last five years, you know people would've complained. "The man's trying to keep me down" and whatnot because they would've felt that they were missing out by not getting the subprime loans (a.k.a. "easy money").
But now that the sh*t hit the fan so to speak, many people are saying "Where was the government?"
What I want to know is: How about personal responsibility?
Ultimately the banks decided to lend money to people with substandard credit and insufficient cash flow / income.
AND people decided to buy something they can never afford by borrowing money. (And it's not just real estate properties I'm talking about here. I'm also talking about people who re-fi to pay off their credit cards, etc. If you're carrying CC balance, you're living above your means)
It's silly for people to blame just the banks or just the borrowers. It's both. It takes two to tango. Unlike Japan (Japan also experienced a massive real estate bubble & resultant mess over 10 years ago) America currently boasts (?) NEGATIVE one percent savings rate. So there's no cushion for the vast majority of people, esp. when they can no longer use their home as ATM. And that, to me, is more troubling that the mess currently going on right now because I really don't see how many average Americans are going to survive this mess.
Finally I don't think the current CEO is going to get a golden parachute because Bear doesn't give it in case of take over, but I do think that MP Morgan BOD may give Schwartz something. BTW -- the idiot who destroyed Bear left earlier this year and got his golden parachute.
I could not agree more Angelle. In the United States we have a problem of HONOR all around I think. People are not thinking and responsibly is a LOST word in the collective vocabulary.
I think they should all forfeit it all.
The little guy - the rank and file employee - who works hard and shows up every day - is ALWAYS the biggest loser and it SUCKS.
Look at Enron - the retirees and the employees foot the bill - completely - while those who lie and cheat do get some come uptense but the little people still pay the most.
More regulation is not the answer!
Post a Comment