Live Suite Dilemma

[Gert van Santen]

Tony Scharf schreef:
> I see it this way...
> 
> the 90s saw the collapse of the communist system on one extreme, and
> now we are seeing the collapse of the other competing extreme.  The
> true, best system, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.
> 
> The problem with a completely free market, is that once you have
> players of sufficient size to manipulate that market then it ceases to
> be free.  We see this in the software market with Microsoft (though
> their power is diminishing) and, in the states anyway, we really see
> it with mega super store Walmart.   They are a large enough player to
> completely alter the landscape of the market and force pricing on
> their vendors, which drives many of them out of business.
> 
> I think, really, our current mess is really a case of the 'Emperors
> New Cloths' gone terribly amok.  *everyone* knew that what was going
> on was crazy and unsustainable, but so long as they money kept coming
> in, no one wanted to admit that the Emperor (in this case mortgage
> backed securities) was stark buck naked.
> 
> So who is to blame?  Everyone, pretty much, in my country and around
> the world who bought into it.   Everyone who lived far beyond their
> means, people who bought houses, people who sold houses, Realtors,
> mortgage brokers, banks, investors, programmers of computer models
> that predicted no risk, credit rating agencies that marked the
> securities as safe...everyone.
> 
> There is something my grandfather taught me: Any time you borrow
> money, sooner or later your going to get a bill.  Collectively, we got
> it and realized there isnt quite enough money in the coffers to pay
> it.  Now people are panicking.  He also taught me to never ever trust
> a financial transaction I couldnt fully understand.  There has been
> far to much of that going around.
> 
> But one thing I wish people would recognize so they would stop
> panicking:  These things are cyclical.  You have booms and you have
> busts.   the bigger the boom...the deeper the bust.   Its a necessary
> part of economics.  companies make lots of money...they get
> wastefull...then you have a bust, and they are forced to lean up. the
> weaker companies fall.  A lot of people end up unemployed for a time,
> but I actually think *that too* is ultimately for the good - it
> reshuffles the pool of skills and forces some people to strike out on
> their own creating new ventures and new innovations that will lead to
> the next boom....and the next bust...and the next boom...
> 
> So, ultimately, I am just going to ride it out.  Better times will come.
> 
> Tony

I respect the grandfather lessons. I had a grandmother that was a 
very wise woman...
-- 

:-)

G e r t   v a n   S a n t e n
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www.gertvansanten.nl