Time For America to Get Back to Financial Basics

Have you been watching the financial markets these past several weeks? Scary, isn’t it? I have always had an interest in watching the big boys play the game, although I have had little success trying to play the game myself. The rules are complicated. In the old days, there were stocks and bonds. Today, there are CDI’s (collateralized debt instruments) and CDS’s (Credit Default Swaps) and naked short selling and derivatives…the list goes on and on.

I have come to the conclusion that unless you were a finance major in college, you won’t have clue as to how things work. That is probably part of the problem. We expect our politicians to understand these things, when our politicians can’t figure out how to pave a road let alone run the world economy.

That being said, all of this junk paper garbage aside, I have come to the conclusion that the country has lost its way from the fundamentals that made us an economic powerhouse. Unless we find our way back, it will be long, hard road for us in the future.

How do you measure the wealth of a nation? It’s by how many refrigerators it makes, not by how many hamburgers it flips. And you know what? We don’t make a whole lot of refrigerators here anymore. I hear the continual mantra about the change from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Horse manure!!! Service is nice, but to base an entire economy on it is to build on nothing but paper and air, because that is all that is there. It is time to revitalize our manufacturing base, so products are made in the United States by Americans, for Americans. If you make nothing, what you got is nothing.

Our banking industry has to go back to basics. Our commercial banks should only loan money to people who are credit worthy and based on realistic appraisals of real estate or legitimate pro-forma business plans. Limit the resale of the loans. Lending banks should carry their own paper. Paperwork should be made universal, and the banks could form a consortium to handle the back of the house maintenance for cost savings. But if First Place Bank makes a bad loan, First Place Bank should be responsible; not some unsuspecting bond holder.

After the Great Depression, there was a reason that commercial banking and investment banking were separated. But that was deregulated years ago, and since then there has been an amalgam of integrated banks offering total banking services. THIS IS A MISTAKE. The result of the market turmoil over the past few months is the so-called “universal” banks. In other words, Bank of America absorbed Merrill Lynch, and will use your deposits to back Merrill’s investment bank activities. Wachovia will merge with Morgan Stanley. Do you want your deposits backing some of this goofy paper these investment banks issue or deal? How stupid is that? Separate them out, and build the wall real high.

Finally, here is the most important of the bunch. Our “balance of trade” should be in balance. While people are quick to point to Wal-Mart as the villain, most of our trade imbalance comes from purchasing our energy needs overseas. It is time to dump the environmental whack jobs and begin producing energy here at home. Energy imports are the single biggest drain on our economy. T. Boone Pickens and his energy independence initiative and General Motors with its Chevy Volt are showing us the way. Do what they say and support what they do, and America will right most of its problem in within the next 5 years.

This isn’t complicated stuff, folks. This is just common sense. We should demand nothing less from our political candidates and government officials.

Obama and Community Service

Barack Obama has raised up the importance of “service”. It is a centerpiece of his campaign which is promoting the establishment of a civilian service corps. I am not sure how it works, but it plugs the idea that coming out of either high school or college, young folks should dedicate a year or two of their life to some altruistic government venture. Originally, his plan was somewhat derogatory of military service, and it appeared that he was going to cut the military budget to fund this idea. At the Columbia University Service Forum last night, he appeared to modify his view by agreeing the ROTC should be given a fair shot on campuses. Horrors!! Imagine a college campus helping the right wing military establishment.

At any rate, at least he walks the walk unlike most Dems who simply talk the talk. After huge scholarships to America’s elite of the elite schools, Columbia and Harvard, Obama went to work as a community organizer in south Chicago. I am not sure that this qualifies him to be president, but he is to be commended for wanting to give something back to the society, seriously!! The problem is that is serves as the basis for his view of life. That is his experience…elite schools followed by community service. For the most part, life ain’t that way.

His wife, Michelle, in an early speech, said that people graduating from college should eschew corporate jobs and go work for the good of society. Unfortunately, most students today coming out of college are saddled with student loans and poor job prospects. At 4 bucks a gallon for gas, one does have to make a living. What is disturbing in that approach is that it demeans people who work for corporations. 40% of all Americans pay no federal income tax. I repeat, 40% of all Americans pay no federal income tax. If that figure gets any higher, who is going to pay for the community programs that the Obama’s are pushing? There is no free lunch.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with service. Over the years, I have been involved in Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, Mahoning Valley Leadership programs focusing on community issues, local theater and musical organizations. I actually sat on the board of Planned Parenthood for awhile, as well as actively raised money for Second Harvest Food Bank, not to mention numerous church projects. As a lawyer, myself as well as all lawyers, do a good amount of pro bono work just because it is the right thing to do when people are hurting.

I believe that most Americans, particularly those of us who are children of the 1960’s, intuitively help out anywhere we can. It isn’t just me, it is many of the people I know personally who volunteer both their time and treasure. I find it ironic that it is the red states that lead the list in charitable donations, and it is a Democrat who wants to institutionalize community service when blue states are at the bottom of the list in charitable donations.

Senator Obama should be commended for his efforts and pointing out the importance of community service. His work should not be belittled just as Governor Palin’s service as a small town mayor should not be belittled. Both are necessary and important to our nation. But Senator Obama, and especially Michelle Obama calling American cold and callous, should not be so quick to demean the huge amount of good work that goes unnoticed and unrewarded except for personal satisfaction.

Community Service is alive and healthy in the United States. It doesn’t need to be institutionalized.

Picture Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons: [lee]: Some Rights Reserved

Old Age: America's Last Bastion of Discrimination

For a country that prides itself on being politically correct and cognizant of other people’s feelings, America sure is selective as to who benefits from its largesse. I have always been cognizant of age as an issue. In the 1968 glory days, the cry was not to trust anyone over the age of 30. When I reached 30, I pushed the limit to 40. When I reached 40, I figured I crossed the Rubicon and shouldn’t trust myself. But this year, it has ceased being funny. As I approach the ripe old age of 59, I am becoming more and more convinced that age is America’s last bastion of acceptable discrimination.

Several things have raised my “we are going to get screwed” antenna. Ohio State popped up first on my radar. The alumni association, besides reneging on its promise of ticket availability to us long time purchasers, announced that the preferred way to purchase football tickets from now on will be on-line. Tickets will no longer be available by mail. If you can’t use a computer, and the vast majority of people over the age of 65 cannot use a computer, you don’t get tickets. I don’t know for sure whether ticket purchasers will be required to receive all notices of upcoming ticket availability by email, or if a mailing will be sent out, but it is not right. Even those who are computer savvy may be hesitant to purchase anything on-line. Perhaps there will be telephone sales, but I doubt it. This is the stuff lawsuits are made of.

John McCain’s bid for the presidency this year has been the subject of continual “old people” jokes. If any of the late night talk show hosts made the same type comments about minorities or blacks, they would be yanked off the air. Think “nappy headed ho”. The old age jokes are continuous and becoming vicious. Do you think you would ever hear David Letterman say that if Obama is elected we should all learn to eat watermelon? It is unacceptable and wrong. Certainly age is a consideration for McCain just as race is a consideration for Obama. But enough is enough.

On a more personal level, I am dealing with my elderly mother and attendant illnesses that would normally accompany an 89 year old. Recently, she has been diagnosed with a serious illness. While in the hospital, the treatment she received was bad, really bad. It was clear that they considered her old, and her needs and those of her elderly roommate where simply ignored by the staff in the worst possible way. I also experienced the same thing with my father who died at the age of 84. His life then and my mother’s now were considered to be throw-away, including some unbelievable comments made right on the chart about how my father should be treated.

More disturbing is my mother’s diagnosis, or should I say diagnoses, as we have learned that she has more than one issue which all of her doctors neglected to discuss with us. Here is the problem. All of her illnesses are treatable, but the doctors have made it clear they are not interested. She has one issue which would normally be considered terminal, but was caught so early that a simple out-patient procedure would not only extend her life by several years, but possibly cure her. But they will not perform it unless we give permission for a more aggressive procedure, which because of her age, she would probably not survive. Folks, the two procedures are unrelated.

Roadblocks have been continually thrown in our way as we make inquiries as to available treatment. She has some breathing issues which no one bothered to explain, even though I have been asking about the problem for over a year. Finally, we looked at her chart and saw the diagnosis. It is treatable. Will it cure her? No, but it certainly would greatly improve the quality of her life. These aren’t heroic measures, folks, but minimum standards of care which would be dispensed to someone 20 years younger without a blink of an eye. Instead, the medical personnel want to discuss feeding tubes and comfort care and hospice, which by any measure are premature. If she receives minimum, proper care now, she may need those things in a year or two or three. If she doesn’t, she might need them in 3 or 4 months.

My father, who was a doctor himself, once told me about walking into a scrub room prior to surgery and bumping into a very upset heart surgeon who had just lost a patient on the table. My father personally knew the deceased and his age, 88. When he asked the surgeon why he was so upset as the patient was old and lived a good life, the surgeon replied, “He may have been 88, but he wanted to live to be 89.”

I thought about that story when I watched the horrible treatment my father received, and now again when I watch the same thing happening to my mother. We baby boomers, and that includes me, are the largest and wealthiest segment in our society. We didn’t stand for discrimination when we were marching the picket lines while we were in college, and we shouldn’t stand for it now. I am truly afraid that it will happen to me. You should be afraid that it will happen to you.