Corporate Bailouts

My question to the government is this: Why are we rewarding companies for their failures?

In the financial markets, we have a bunch of companies that have been engaging in what can be termed as 'less than ethical' dealings, and now that it has caught up with them, they are crying to the government, and ultimately, the taxpayers, aka, the rest of us, for a free handout to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into. Here is a good explanation of what has been going on.

In the Auto industry, we have at least two companies on the verge of bankruptcy in the face of competition, and a very tight economic market. Reuters has another story about how GM is having trouble. Apparently Goldman Sachs has suspended their rating of GM, and it looks like GM is asking its employees to cry to congress to try and pressure the government into giving GM money.

It seems like the world is in the early to mid phases of another depression, not seen since the 1930s. The financial outlook for the markets and many companies is very gloomy indeed, yet it looks like much of this chaos could have been prevented, and indeed, we see many institutions that did not go the route of previously mentioned shady dealings are doing just fine. One example is BECU, as outlined in this letter from their president.

Now, back to the original question: If companies like BECU and others could avoid this problem, why are the tax payers being forced to give copious amounts of money to the bank that prints our money (the Federal Reserve), and then allowing that corporation to decide who gets that money? Who is actually keeping a watch over how this money is being spent? Who is getting rich off of this, and who is getting screwed over? Is there any way we can gain true transparency into what is going on, and more importantly, keep from getting screwed over in the future?

Election Night 2008

Last night, history was made.

Our country has finally shown that no matter your skin color, you can do whatever you want.

Now, I think we really only have one "barrier" left to break. A barrier that has about 18,000,000 cracks in it; one that I imagine has a good chance of breaking in about 8 years.

For the rest of my images from the street party that ensued after the McCain conceded, head on over here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69300&l=c7a35&id=697396521

Halloween Party

For those of you not on Facebook, here is a link to our Halloween 2008 Party pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69289&l=b9970&id=697396521